


Me and the Master

by metalandleather



Category: Avengers, X-Men
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-10-27
Packaged: 2017-12-22 07:06:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/910337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metalandleather/pseuds/metalandleather
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fera Novak is a powerful Omega-level mutant with a dark past. When the world is faced with the threat of an alien invasion, she and the other X-Men must band together with a group of superheroes called the Avengers to save the Earth from ruin. Yet when a powerful being makes her the last option for the survival of the very criminal she fought against, can she put aside his past and give him a chance for a different future?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Prisoner

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fanfic I've been playing around with for a while, it's just been sitting in the hidden crevices of my laptop so I thought I'd put it somewhere useful. May or may not continue, depending on various factors. Hope you enjoy! x

             
The dark-haired god towered over his captors as they led him to his prison, a small smirk playing on his thin lips. They had been told that he had come easily, almost willingly, to his imprisonment; as they led him down the long, windowless hallways, he eyed the guards with triumph dancing behind his eyes, a countenance that put the men on edge but thrilled him enormously. Loki reveled in the discomfort he caused them, cackling like the madman he knew he was when the guards pushed him into the glass prison and sent fire coursing through his veins with a small metal gauntlet. There were two of them now in the cage with him, trying to assert dominance over this man they hardly knew, each mortal wielding his own strange silver contraption as if its presence alone would keep the prisoner docile.  
             
"Let's get a move on, Fury's orders," A guard who stood as sentry by the door called into the glass cage that held Loki and his frightened captors.

            "Why?" One of them challenged, turning toward the man indignantly. The smaller guard in the cage held up his gauntlet defensively at Loki as the other turned his back to face the sentry; the god suppressed rolling his eyes with supreme difficulty--these mortals and their strange weapons. What could they do against a god like him?  
             
"The Blackbird is coming in within the hour; all hands are supposed to be back at stations,"  
             
"The Blackbird?" the belligerent one repeated. "With the X-Men?"  
            "Yes, that's the one," the sentry responded with a touch of patronization to his voice.  
            "Why are they coming here?" The guard who still had his electric gauntlet pointed at Loki asked, though not daring to tear his eyes away from the god who now sat disinterestedly on the bench.  
            "To talk about him, of course," the sentry responded, nodding toward the uncharacteristically tame god in the glass prison. "I heard there is an Omega aboard,"  
            "Omega?" the belligerent one repeated blankly. "No Omega-level mutant should be aboard this ship. He could take the entire thing down with a twitch of his hand," the belligerent guard sheathed his gauntlet in his belt and exited the cage, and the other guard slowly backed toward the door after him, still wary of Loki as if he would spring at him at any moment. Loki quirked a brow, and the man turned, bolted out of the door, and pressed the button to close it frantically, turning to see if Loki had made chase. The god rolled his eyes.  
            "They are abominations, all of them. They don't belong with us. I think that cure could have gone a long way, don't you? Get rid of those freaks of nature they call homo sapiens superior," one guard remarked scathingly as they joined the sentry at the doorway. They stood around each other, Loki assumed because Fury had not yet sent for them. The sentry shook his head, evidently frustrated.  
            "Why would we call them in anyways?" another asked.  
            "Probably because Fury knows this 'Avengers Intiative' thing is a joke. I mean, have you seen any of them? The most recent technological advancement this 'Captain America' guy knows about is the radio. We're doomed," On the other side of the chamber, someone cleared their throat pointedly, and Loki smirked at the looks of mortification on his captors' faces. The man they called Agent Phil Coulson stood in the other doorway, hands clasped behind his back and his brows quirked high.  
            "Thank you, gentlemen, goodbye," he said. The guards swiftly exited the chamber like naughty schoolboys, and Loki stood to face the small man.  
            "Who are these you call mutants? Barton told me nothing of them," Loki said in a voice like silk. Coulson was unfazed, answering him without so much as blink.   
            "They're not part of Fury's team, and none of your concern right now. However, they will be causing you a world of trouble very soon if you do not cooperate,"   
            "I do not have the Tesseract, Son of Coul, surely you've pieced that together by now?" Loki smirked.  
            "Maybe you aren't holding it, but you know where it is," Coulson replied mildly. "Our team will be working with that spear of yours to find it. Unless you want to tell us where it is now,"  
            "And why would I do that?"  
            Coulson shrugged. "You're going to lose anyway, why not cut your losses and come quietly?"  
            Loki opened his mouth to counter Coulson's foolish question. Before he could respond, however, the sliding doors to the greater chamber opened, and a guard clothed in black stepped through.  
            "Agent Coulson, the Blackbird is inbound. Fury needs you on the runway," he said in a monotone that thinly veiled his discomfort. Loki grinned, though he wasn't entirely sure if the guard's discomfort was caused by his presence or the arrival of these outcasts they called "mutants."  
            Coulson nodded to the guard once, and followed him out of the chamber. Before he was all the way out of the room, however, he paused and turned to Loki, a cheeky smirk playing on his lips. "Loki," he said, "Don't go anywhere."  
            The snarling god struck the glass with an angry fist as Coulson turned his back to him and walked away. As the chamber doors slid closed, he vowed that the Son of Coul would be the first one he would kill when he escaped.


	2. A Team

Director Nick Fury was not a nervous man. It was part of the reason why he excelled at his job--because of the decades of SHIELD training he had undergone to become an authority figure that inspired both amazement and fear into the hearts of his agents as well as his enemies, his ability to remain calm and in control in a crisis was unmatched by any other. Place a gun to his head and he would counter with a sarcastic remark. Rip out an eye and he'll glare at you with the other. His best agent, Phil Coulson, did not get nervous easily either. He was a mild sort of man that did not strike fear into the hearts of their targets, but he certainly knew what he was doing just as well as Fury did. If it were only men like them who worked at SHIELD, the word 'crime' itself would be eradicated from the English language.  
            However, to Director Fury's sometimes embarrassing disappointment, not all those who worked at SHIELD shared the same intestinal fortitude. The other agents' fear of what lay ahead echoed in their scurrying footsteps, their wavering voices, and their widened eyes that Fury could hear and see whenever something new or threatening loomed on the horizon. Today, he could have excused the frightened agents. This was, after all, a situation that they hadn't been prepared for--an alien god leading an army against the entire planet? It was, of course, unheard of. Fury could understand the agents' fright, their need to whisper behind their hands as he passed, the skepticism of this team he called the Avengers following him wherever he went. It was understandable; though Fury believed that this new situation could be handled if they did it his way, not everyone could be an exact replica of himself or Coulson. He could excuse them for being nervous--frightened, even--for the oncoming wrath of a god. For the looming threat of enslavement if this god proved victorious. For the hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, millions of lives that would be lost if they could not stop him. He even could have excused them for their fear of the full realization that aliens existed, and that they did not walk this universe alone.  
            But as Director Fury stood on the runway that had been built atop the Helicarrier and glanced at his whispering guards, he realized that the cause of their discomfort, their nervousness, and their fear, was not the genocidal alien that sat prisoner beneath them. No, the cause of the whispers that were as loud as screams and the furtive glances they shot toward Fury like catty school girls was a single word, one that had been the primary topic of all important political debates for years: mutants.  
            Mutants were not welcome in society. That was it, the final line, the reality that Fury had come to terms with as he followed the tumultuous campaign for equality between the common man and the not-so-common beings they called homo sapiens superior. The fear of mutants was almost universal. While Fury saw their presence as merely a stepping stone on humanity's continual path of evolution, almost the entire rest of the world viewed them as not only enemies, but lepers as well-- to be forever ostracized from common society. It was frustrating for the Director; if the Council members weren't so afraid of mutants, so intent on remaining anally xenophobic, these people with extraordinary gifts hardwired into their DNA could provide SHIELD with new and unprecedented success. However, the truth remained that while Fury immensely enjoyed the presence of the clandestine program called the 'X-Men' as well as the progressive abilities of the mutants that were involved, the rest of the world had not yet caught up.  
            It came as no surprise, therefore, when the guards exchanged raised eyebrows and distasteful expressions as the sleek form of the Blackbird came into sight. Fury stood up straighter-- his posture became more erect as if being half an inch taller would remind his guards that the crisis they now faced was much larger than any petty discrimination the young agents held against the reclusive people in the jet.  One guard caught Fury's glaring eye and he nudged the others pointedly. They fell silent as the Blackbird hovered over the runway in front of them, yet Fury noticed how they held their snipers a little higher, with tighter grips and fingers too close to the trigger.  
            Director Fury, Agent Coulson, and the armed guards eyed the sleek aircraft as it landed silently and smoothly on the runway. As the boardwalk lowered to meet the asphalt, each of the guards shifted in their stances, the panic in their widened eyes growing more evident with each passing moment. Fury glanced at Coulson, who gave him an easy nod. Fury returned his attention to the boardwalk. They should be coming down any moment now. The suspense of who and what was coming down that ramp built around Fury and his men; Fury began to flex his fingers tensely around his wrists as he held his hands behind his back. The guards shifted from one foot to another, each of their rifles held apprehensively in front of them. Agent Coulson just blinked, that easy smile still fixed on his face. The seconds felt like hours, and just as Fury thought his men were about to panic from the anxiety the presence of the Blackbird caused them, a black, leather boot stepped onto the boardwalk.   
            The mutants came out one by one. There were four of them, all clad in the same leather suit; black, with yellow trimming and a large 'X' over the chest. Each of their faces were stern but not unkind; except for the man second to last in line, who eyed the guards as if he wanted to shove their guns in a place where the sun didn't shine. The first mutant to step onto the runway was a tall black woman with outlandishly white spiked hair and a black cape over her left shoulder, which fluttered behind her as she strode past the guards and stopped in front of Fury.  
            "Director Fury, I presume?" she said, stretching out a hand, a hint of a Jamaican accent dripping from her voice.  
            "Yes. Hello. You must be Ororo?" he replied.  
            "They call me Storm," she said. One of the guards snickered, hurriedly trying to disguise it as a coughing fit when Fury shot daggers at him.  
            "It is a pleasure to meet you," he told Storm, his eyes glancing over the rest of the mutants as well.  
            "A shame under the given circumstances," she nodded. Her eyes flickered to Agent Coulson, who stood quietly beside Fury. "And what is your name?"  
            "Hello, I'm Phil Coulson. It is an honor to have you onboard," he said in a friendly tone, extending a hand. Storm took it with a smile. "Shall we?" he asked, glancing at Fury. The Director nodded, leading them all across the runway back inside the Helicarrier. Storm walked in between Fury and Coulson, the rest of the mutants following, and Fury's guards behind them.  
            "This crew sure has changed since the last time I saw it," Fury remarked to her as he led them down the hallway.  
            "You have no idea, Bub," a bitter voice replied lowly from behind him. Fury turned to see the unfriendly-looking man who had stared down the guards earlier glaring back at him with dark, angry eyes. Fury wondered if he had somehow touched a nerve.  
            "Yes, we've had... several additions and many losses," Storm said quickly, almost in apology for the other man's curtness. "This is our current team: Shadowcat," a cheerful-looking girl who walked a few paces behind Storm grinned at Fury. "Wolverine," the unfriendly man rolled his eyes. "And Scrapper," The girl last in line glanced up briefly and met Fury's eyes as the guards behind her began to whisper quickly.  
            "Which one's the Omega?" the girl lowered her eyes to the ground nervously and tucked her hair behind her ear as Fury grimaced at the guards. He was worried at how the mutants would respond to the guards' discomfort, but thus far this girl, Scrapper, seemed to be the only one who noticed their unwelcoming behavior.    
            At length, the company filed into a large conference room Fury liked to call 'the War Room' because it was the biggest on the ship. He dismissed the guards before they could enter behind him by pointedly sliding the doors shut in their faces. Fury nodded to Coulson once, and the man exited the room swiftly to bring his team together for the meeting they so desperately needed to have.  
             "Have you captured the war criminal?" Storm asked as she took a seat at the long, reflective conference table.  
            "Indeed we have," Fury replied, nodding. "My team has located and secured Loki. However--"  
            "Hang on, he's here?" the unfriendly man--Wolverine-- asked. He stood behind a chair at the table a few places away from Storm, but he did not sit down.  
            Fury nodded again. "He is in captivity aboard the ship."  
            "And the Tesseract?" Kitty asked from the chair beside Storm. Fury blinked. He hadn't told them anything about the Tesseract when he had called them in; how much did they know, and how did they find out?  
            Wrestling away his discomfort, he said, "The prisoner is reluctant to say,"  
            "Really?" Wolverine snarled, tensing. "Let me at him," Fury tried not to show his alarm as long, silver daggers crept out of the man's knuckles, turning his balled fists into claws. Wolverine snickered at Fury's widened eyes, glued to the blades that seemed as much a part of the man as his own arm. Before Fury had recovered enough to respond, a voice wafted in from the hallway.  
            "Let you at who?" the rest of the man traipsed in, and Fury inwardly groaned as Tony Stark extended a hand to Wolverine, who merely raised his claws. Tony clapped him on the shoulder instead, eliciting a growl from Wolverine. "Careful, big guy, you'll put someone's eye out,"   
            "In answer to your proposal, Wolverine," Fury said loudly, trying to get a handle on the room before the situation escalated, "No one will go near Loki until we have a plan in place,"  
            "Why is Stark here then?" Captain Steve Rogers strode into the room, clad in his new suit that Coulson had so carefully and diligently designed months beforehand. "He's not exactly the 'planning' type, as we've all learned,"  
            "Go back and finish your game of Mahjong, Gramps," Stark snapped as the Captain sat across the table from him.  
            "Nice spandex," Wolverine muttered. The Captain turned to him, his eyes briefly catching the man's claws as they detracted into his hand.  
            "You're one to talk," he replied drily, nodding toward his leather outfit.  
            "Everyone, just calm down. We need to focus on what we're going to do about Loki," Fury stressed as Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner entered the room quietly; Romanoff seated herself in a chair a few places away from Fury, and Banner leaned against the wall in the back of the room near the door with his arms crossed, in case he needed to make a quick exit if things became tense.  
            "Where's Thor?" Fury questioned them as they walked in. They glanced at each other, and then to Fury, and shrugged silently as the rest of the room ignored him.  
            "Hey, these the mutants everyone's going on about?" Stark said, gesturing toward the leather-clad figures in the room. Wolverine rolled his eyes.  
            "No, hotshot, we're the catering service," he replied sarcastically.  
            "Mutants?" Rogers interrupted as Stark opened his mouth with what Fury was sure was a brazen retort. "Like Dr. Banner?"  
            Fury glanced to Banner, who took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed.  "Different program, Cap," Banner replied mildly.  
            "To answer your question, Stark, yes, these are indeed the X-Men that I have called in to discuss the very important matter of the homicidal maniac downstairs," Fury said, loudly and pointedly. "This is Storm, Shadowcat, Wolverine, and Scrapper,"  
            "Which one of you is the Omega?" Stark questioned, glancing at each of them.  
            "What's it to you?" Wolverine retorted defensively.  
            "Easy there, Captain Hook, no need to get your leather in a bunch,"  
            Fury hung his head exasperatedly. At this rate, Loki will have taken over the entire universe before they even began discussing the threat he posed to Earth. "Everyone calm down," he repeated in a drone.  
            "Has anyone gotten word on Thor's whereabouts?" Romanoff's quiet but commanding voice interjected.  
            "Maybe we should send someone to go find him," Rogers suggested. Wolverine rolled his eyes.  
            "It's a flying ship, there's only so many places he could be,"  
            "Or, you know, he could have found Loki and left, since apparently he can fly," Banner said thoughtfully.  
            "Fly?" Storm repeated, glancing between Fury and Banner.  
            "Magic hammer," he explained, replacing his glasses carefully on his face.  
            "Great. So now we got this joker in the prison, plus his powerful flying magic-hammer-wielding brother who may or may not be with us," Wolverine muttered. "Anything else?"  
            "Thor also has command of the skies. You know, Norse God of Thunder and all that," Stark supplied.  
            "He's not the only one," Fury and the others turned to Storm as her eyes glossed over and became completely white; the clouds outside the window turned dark and ominous, and Fury heard a rumble of thunder in the distance. Suddenly, the white film over Storm's eyes disappeared, as did the dark clouds; upon a second glance out the window Fury saw nothing but blue sky.  
            "Holy crap that was cool," Stark whispered. Storm smirked, nodding her head in acknowledgement of his compliment.  
            Just as Fury was about to open his mouth to remind everyone yet again of the importance of remaining on topic, he heard a booming voice coming down the hallway.  
            "WHERE IS THE MAN OF FURY?" seconds later, Thor strode in, glowering at Fury. "Why is my brother in a cage?"  
            "Hey, look who made it," Stark said, spinning to face Thor in his swivel chair.  
            "I take it you've found Loki?" Fury asked sarcastically.  
            "He should not be in your crystal prison. He may be beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother," Thor said, pointing at Fury with his large, ornately-carved hammer.  
            "Yeah, well he also killed 80 people in the past two days, Bub," Wolverine countered.  
            Thor hesitated for a moment. "Loki is...adopted," he admitted, earning a low chuckle from Wolverine, the first smile Fury had seen on him.  
            "Right now our primary concern is finding the Tesseract," Fury told them. "Banner, how close are you to locating it?"  
            Banner looked up, his hands fiddling with his glasses as if he was uncomfortable speaking around so many people. He glanced at Stark uneasily. "We, uh... we actually haven't started yet," he admitted sheepishly.

 

Fury's eye bugged. "I'm sorry?"

            "Look, Fury, we can locate the Tesseract within a few hours using gamma radiation and Loki's glowstick of destiny. However, there's a bit of a problem--"

            "What exactly is it? I fail to see what could be so pressing that you would neglect to find it!" Fury demanded.

            "We can't get near it," Banner said quickly, as Stark opened his mouth for a clever retort. "The radiation is too strong, it could kill Tony and/or do something to the Other Guy,"

            "The Other Guy?" Kitty repeated as she listened to the conversation intently. "Who's that?"

            "The big, green, rage monster Banner turns into when he's mad," Stark explained matter-of-factly. He turned to Fury. "Yeah, so, if we get near it there will be no finding the Tesseract because there will be no one to look for it,"

            "That won't be a problem," Storm said as Fury blanched. "Scrapper can control the radiation and keep it at bay so it won't harm anybody," Storm turned to the tall, dark-haired girl who leaned against the wall with her arms crossed in the back of the room. The girl looked up and nodded silently.

            "So you're the Omega. They call you guys Masters, right? Stark noted, standing. Scrapper nodded again.

            "Master?" Thor repeated, confused. "A Master of what?"

            "You know, the type of mutant?" Stark answered eagerly. Blank looks met his excited gaze. His countenance fell and he grimaced. "Does no one do their research here? Seriously?" Wolverine rolled his eyes pointedly.

            "Get on with it, Stark," Fury said, exasperated but curious.

            "Masters are the rarest type of mutants in the world. There's only been about 150 in known history, and there are less than a dozen alive today," Stark rattled off as if he was a walking entry for the Encyclopedia Britannica. Scrapper looked down and leaned against the wall as if she wanted to melt into it.

            "What do you do?" Rogers asked. Fury covered his face with a hand and groaned inwardly.

            "Always the same questions," Wolverine answered, shaking his head. "We do  a lot of things, Eagle Scout. I drink beer and box for money. Storm gardens. Shadowcat ice skates, and Scrapper plays video games even though she sucks. That's what we do,"

            "Logan," Storm warned.

            "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone," Rogers said quickly.

            "I'm sorry for my team's lack of tact," Fury said, annoyed. "Miss Scrapper,  would you mind explaining your mutant ability so we can all move on here?" Scrapper looked up, suddenly aware that all eyes were on her. She glanced at Stark, who began to speak again, and she exhaled in relief.

            "An Omega--well this type specifically, they're called Masters--can manipulate matter and energy," Stark stepped in. "They can't make stuff out of thin air, but they can control, absorb, and replicate anything that's already there. Right?" he asked, glancing at Scrapper for confirmation.

            The girl smirked. "Pretty much," she said.

            "I still do not understand," Thor said in a deep voice.

            "Here's a demonstration," Stark whipped out a gun that looked like a miniature metallic cannon, and shot a powerful blast of energy  in the form of a bright beam in her direction.

            "STARK!" Fury bellowed. If anything happened to that girl, he would be done for. He wondered briefly how he would go; Wolverine may cut him into pieces with his creepy claws. Or, perhaps if they're merciful, Storm will throw him off the Helicarrier and strike him with a bit of lightning.

            Scrapper, however, was unfazed. Without so much as a blink, she held up her hands and stopped the beam in its tracks, keeping it between her palms and shaping it into a bright ball, much like a child would with Play-Doh. She clapped her hands together--Fury could see the light of the energy glowing through the cracks in her fingers--and then slowly separated her hands. The ball stretched thinner and thinner as she pulled her hands apart, until it disappeared altogether. The room sat in stunned silence for a few moments, until Stark started clapping slowly.

            "Brilliant," he said. "Totally wicked,"

            "I am so sorry about that," Fury apologized profusely. Scrapper returned her gaze to the ground, but this time with a smirk playing on her lips.

            "It's alright. It's natural to be curious," Storm said with a tight smile. Fury had no doubt that regular people threw things at them or made them demonstrate their abilities on a regular basis, and he felt a sudden pang of pity for the mutants in front of him.

            "That was extraordinary!" Thor boomed jovially.

            "Thanks," Scrapper replied, surprise playing on her brow.

            "Go get started on the scepter before you kill someone, Stark," Fury snapped.

            "Sweet. Come on guys, let's blow this popsicle stand." With that, Stark strode confidently out of the room, Banner and Scrapper following quietly behind. Fury dropped to his chair at the conference table and watched as the rest of the room separated into their own conversations: Wolverine and Thor, Rogers and Kitty, and Romanoff and Storm. Seeing as they were all quite hostile at first, Fury was surprised to see them all getting along so easily.

            Despite the fact that these people had the attention span of a handful of gnats, and despite the fact that he would never admit it to any of them, Fury was proud of these two teams now combined into one. While his highly-trained SHIELD agents shifted uncomfortably and exchanged wary glances and furtive whispers when Fury announced his Initiative, when the Avengers began showing up in the jets, and as the mutants arrived, the Avengers and the X-Men were mutually accepting of one another. Looking around the room, Fury came to the realization that none of these people were in the least bit "normal." They were mutants, supersoldiers, geniuses, billionaires, gods, master assassins, and science experiments gone wrong. They were, as Fury had heard one of his agents call them, "absolute and complete freaks." Each of these people were strange, untamed, with abilities and powers that were unprecedented by any standards, and a certain kind of strength Fury had rarely seen in his career--the kind that couldn't be controlled by SHIELD or anyone else.

            The guard had been right. They were absolute and complete freaks. And maybe that was what the world needed.


	3. A Master

"Okay, so the scepter's in there."

            Tony, Bruce, and Scrapper stood in a hallway outside the sealed chamber that held Loki's scepter. Bright, thick blue light poured through the small window that rested high and in the middle of the heavy door. As Tony gestured to the door, the three of them looked inside of it to see the scepter laying on the counter, sending out random sparks and bursts of energy that looked unwelcoming at best.

            "Are you sure you can do this, Scrapper?" Bruce asked the girl beside them. Even though Tony had said she was an Omega, he didn't think anyone would be able to withstand this level of high-powered gamma radiation. "That is a lot of energy in there, raw and untamed because Loki isn't controlling it,"

            "Relax, Bruce, she's an Omega. This is like play time to her," Tony said, elbowing him in the arm. Bruce sighed as the girl raised her eyebrows at him.

            "Really, Scrapper, if the extreme levels of gamma radiation are too high, we can find another way," The girl turned back toward the door, and glanced inside the room through the small window on the door, staring at the scepter as if she was sizing it up. She sighed, and turned to face them.

            "Fera," she said in a clear voice, "Call me Fera."

            "Fera?" Tony repeated. "Why?"

            "It's my name," she replied with a smirk. "Fera Novak,"

            "So you all have like...real names?" Tony asked, a bit deflated.

            "Of course we do. We're X-Men, not pet chihuahuas,"

            "That's a shame. I kind of loved the idea that some awesome parents would name their son Wolverine," Tony said with a grin.

            "Anyways," Bruce said mildly. "Fera, I know better than anyone the dangers of gamma radiation. You don't have to do this if you can't handle it,"

            "Dr. Banner," Fera replied, "Do you remember a few months ago when North Korea deployed its country-wide atomic bomb to the U.S. and it turned almost the entire country to dust?"

            Bruce and Tony exchanged bewildered glances. "Um...no," Bruce replied.

            Fera turned back to the door. "Exactly," Without warning, she slammed her palm onto the large red button to the side of the door and strode into the room as the doors slid open. Tony and Bruce threw their hands up with panicked shouts, positive that they had met their end as soon as the doors opened; the radiation would come flooding out and destroy them both. In a matter of seconds, however, the blue light faded from in front of their tightly shut eyelids and an amused voice called them from inside the previously uninhabitable room.

            "You guys can come in, we won't bite," Tony and Bruce stepped into the room carefully to see Fera gracefully sitting cross-legged on top of the counter near the scepter despite her long, slender limbs, her thin hands clasped together in her lap comfortably.

            "So, uh....atomic bomb?" Bruce said, in an attempt at light conversation. "You negated the effects of an atomic bomb?"

            "Yep," Fera replied, watching with interest as the two men started to arrange various computer parts and other technological instruments around the room. "North Korea was a bit put out,"

            "Glad I never sold them any of my tech," Stark quipped. "The guy that wanted to buy the Jericho from me smelled funny,"

            "So, how long have you been able to do that?" Bruce asked.

            "Stop atomic bombs, you mean? Well, I've only done the one, so..." Fera replied, amusement playing on her brow.

            "And that was just a few months ago?"

            "Yeah, I saw it on the Pentagon's alert system--"

            "You hacked into the Pentagon?" Tony queried, his brows raised. "Nice one,"

            "Oh, it wasn't me, a friend at the school can speak to technology,"

            Tony rubbed his hands together excitedly. "That is so cool. Does he do parties? Kidding. I'm totally kidding," he added hastily as Bruce shot him a glare.

            "Did it...you know, hurt?" Bruce asked.

            Fera gave a slight nod. "A bit, yeah. I started bleeding from my nose and ears, and my heart stopped afterward for like a minute. But I was fine after that. Slept for about 86 hours straight, but no biggie,"

            "That's incredible," Bruce said, shaking his head.

            "You don't know the half of it, big guy. She's being modest--a quality I find immensely irritating, by the way," Tony added, pointing to Fera. "I heard that Masters can control anything. Can't you?"

            "It's a bit more complicated than 'controlling anything,' Mr. Stark. I'm still training,"

            "Mr. Stark was my father. If I call you Fera then you call me Tony, and you call him Big Green Rage Monster," Tony replied immediately. Bruce looked up and rolled his eyes. "Anyways, training? From who? There are like eight of you in the entire world,"

            "There are five of us, to be exact," Fera corrected. "But there's no authority on being a Master, so we have to train ourselves. Sort of figure it out as we go along,"

            "Yeah, but," Bruce said, coming over to the counter to scan the scepter with a metal rod. "If you can stop an atomic bomb in its tracks, what else is there?"

            Fera hesitated for a moment thoughtfully.  "The things I can control are matter and energy, so they're all tangible things. Like the elements, biological processes, electricity, radiation," she gestured toward the scepter. "But right now I'm working on intangible stuff like emotions and time,"

            "No way," Tony peered at her from behind a see-through computer screen.

            "Yeah, so far I can stop time maybe for just under ten seconds,"

            "That's it?"

            "I'm stopping the entire universe in its tracks, Tony, it's a bit of a challenge,"

            "And what about emotions?" Bruce asked, his eyes wide and attentive. "Can you...stop emotions?"

            "Emotions are the worst. They're so mercurial and dependent on both the person and the situation, so I have to constantly adjust. It's even worse when there's more than one person. So far I can do happiness, sadness, and sometimes anger," Fera saw a sparkle of hope glimmer in Bruce's eyes, though she wasn't entirely sure why.

            "Can you do crazy? 'Cause that's what we'll need for this joker," Tony said, nodding toward the scepter.

            "Crazy isn't an emotion," Fera replied. "It's a state of mind. Who is he, anyway? Storm told us he was some sort of...alien?"

            "Not just any alien," Tony said. "He's a god. The Norse god, in fact, of mischief and lies. That burly booming blonde is his brother,"

            "I gathered that, funnily enough. Do we know what he wants?"

            "We're not sure," Bruce responded, peering at her over his glasses. "He's using the Tesseract to try to take over the world, but we've no idea why, or what he plans to do afterwards,"

            "Thor mentioned that he was 'adopted.' Maybe there's a tragic backstory there," Fera said sarcastically.

            "Doubt it," Tony said. "I'm thinking Loki's just a jerk. But still, taking on the entire world is a challenge. He must have a reason,"

            "It is because of me," said a booming voice. The three of them turned to see Thor standing in the doorway. "Loki is angry at me and wants Midgard as recompense,"

            "That's Thor," Tony told Fera. "I think you've kind of met in the War Room,"

            "Hello Thor," Fera gave a small wave. "I'm sorry about your brother and his descent into madness,"

            "He is not mad," Thor said stubbornly.

            "Yeah he's just evil," Bruce nodded.

            "Take care of how you speak, Doctor," Thor said, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

            "You don't think he's evil or crazy?" Fera asked quickly in an attempt to distract Thor. She knew the last thing they needed--especially in this room--was for Thor and Bruce to get in an argument.

            "No," Thor replied, sadness etched into every line on his face. "No, I do not,"

            "Why is he doing this then, Hammer Time?" Tony quipped, not tearing his eyes away from the computer screen.

            "He boasted of seeing new worlds, gaining new knowledge that far surpassed my own. Loki has always boasted of his books and teachers, but this time he would not tell me who or what gave him this knowledge. I suspect it was the same source of the scepter. That is not from Asgard," Thor said, warily nodding toward the scepter beside Fera.

            "You think he's...being influenced?" Fera asked, though it was more of a statement than a question. Thor hesitated.

            "I cannot say for certain,"

            Tony and Bruce exchanged raised eyebrows, but neither of them said a word. Fera studied Thor for a moment, then quickly swung her legs off the counter and hopped to the ground. "I need to talk to this brother of yours," she said.

            "Why?" Tony and Bruce said in unison.

            "The radiation from his scepter has been fighting me this whole time, and he's the only one who can tell me why. I've never had radiation resist like this, almost as if it had a consciousness. I need to know what's causing it,"

            "Bad idea. Seriously bad idea," Tony warned.

            "It is alright, Metal Man," Thor said evenly, hope glimmering in his eyes. "I will accompany her to his dungeon and make sure no harm comes to her. Besides, my brother is unable to get far while locked in the Midgardian prison,"

            "What about the glowstick of destiny?" Tony asked. "It'll turn us to dust as soon as you leave,"

            "I can control it from far away, as long as I have had contact with it. Don't worry. It may be fighting me, but it's not like it's an atomic bomb or anything," Fera said cheekily as she followed Thor into the hallway.

            "Be careful, Fera," Bruce called after her.

***

            Minutes later--although it felt like an eternity to Fera as she walked next to Thor, who positively radiated with sadness--the two of them had made it to the stairwell that led to the lowest part of the ship, where there was one room and one room only: the chamber that held the glass cage.

            "How are you holding up?" Fera asked Thor as they began to climb down the steep steps. Thor peered at her, confused.

            "No one has asked me that," he remarked. He gave a lengthy sigh. "I am, of course, worried for my brother. I do not know what poisons his mind, but I fear that if I cannot make him see the error of his ways soon, he will be lost. He wasn't always so bent on destruction," he added. "There was a time, when we were young, that he was the biggest--what is the word you say in Midgard--ah, softy in the Nine Realms,"

            "Really?" Fera queried. Thor had a faraway look, a glimmer of nostalgia that temporarily overshadowed the sadness on his face. He chuckled lightly.

            "Yes," he said. "He would always get me into the worst sort of trouble, but he was always there to get me back out,"

            "I see," Fera said hesitantly.

            "There was one time I misplaced Mjolnir," Thor recounted, shaking his head. "I was young and foolish at the time. Loki, though I know he has always coveted the hammer, did not hesitate in helping me to find it. He stole Freyja's falcon shape, and did not rest until he flew far enough to find it. It turns out the Jotun Thrym had stolen it, holding it ransom at the price of Freyja as his bride. Freyja was not so pleased,"

            "So what happened?" Fera asked. They had finally made it to the bottom of the stairwell, and a long, artificially lit hallway stretched out in front of them, leading to a set of thick doors at the end of it.

            Thor grinned. "Loki disguised me as Freyja, put me in a wedding gown with a veil, and acted as my manservant. He brought me to the Jotunheim, told Thrym that Freyja would be overjoyed to be his bride. When Thrym brought us to a hall for a large feast, he placed Mjolnir in my lap as a gesture of his might, and I, of course, unveiled my disguise and took back what was rightfully mine,"

            "I'm sorry, I can't get the image of you in a wedding dress out of my mind," Fera said after a few moments. Thor chuckled, then his face fell back into sadness.

            "I do not know what is wrong with Loki, but he was not always this way," he said again.

            Fera nodded slowly. "I believe you," she replied hesitantly. "I don't doubt that at one point in time Loki wasn't a total douchecanoe. But Thor, right now he's a huge threat to not just this planet but to every other planet that he can get his hands on if we don't stop him. You can't keep treating him like he is the person he was, because in reality your brother isn't there anymore,"

            "What are you suggesting?" Thor said in a low voice that dripped with anger. Fera's hand hesitated over the button on the side of the doorframe that would slide open the door to the chamber.

            "I'm just saying that we have to consider eliminating those who pose a threat to us," she said coldly, her dark eyes boring into Thor's. He thought he could see the ghost of a shadow flash behind her eyes. "No matter who they are or what they mean to us," she added softly.

             Thor narrowed his eyes at her, and his fists clenched at his sides as he was about to refute her logic, that no, he could save Midgard as well as his brother, what could a mortal know about this sort of thing anyways? However, just as he began to speak, the heavy doors slid open and Agent Romanoff stepped through the doorway, stopping short when she saw Thor and Fera.

            "Thor, good, you're here, Loki plans to unleash the Hulk," she said quickly.

            "The Hulk? You mean Banner?" Thor said, furrowing his brows. Romanoff nodded curtly.

            "Yes. We're all  gathering to see what we can do to stop it. But we have to go, now, before it's too late," she replied, pushing past them and walking rapidly down the hall. She turned as she got to the stairwell. "Come on!"

            "Thor, I need to talk to him. I need to know what kind of radiation is in that scepter. My team will be there, and I'll be up in a few minutes,"

            "Are you sure you can handle him alone?" Thor said.

            "Yeah. I'll be fine," she replied. He nodded once, still perturbed by her blatant lack of sympathy, and left her standing in the hallway.

            Fera faced the still-open doorway, and peered into the large, cavernous room. "Well," she said to herself, "Here goes nothing."


	4. A Plan

  Loki sat on a plain bench in the glass cage, his head in his hands. As Fera entered the cavernous chamber, his head snapped up and a malevolent smirk curled on his lips. He stood and watched her with shifty eyes as she strode into the room.

            "Hello Loki," Fera said, standing directly in front of the cage and folding her arms across her chest. "I'm Scrapper,"

            "I did not ask for your ridiculous name, mortal," he snapped, his blue eyes raking up and down her figure. She raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you the one Fury sent to torture me? He must be getting desperate,"

            Fera raised her brows. "Torture you? What makes you think I'm here for that?"

            "He wants something, I won't give it to him, torture always follows," Loki replied in a bored voice.

            "Always?" Fera repeated, narrowing her eyes.

            Loki grimaced. "Get on with it, wench,"

            "I'm not here to torture you," Fera said, shaking her head. "And I wouldn't even if Fury did send me down here. I'm not even part of his team,"

            "I am touched by your unwavering humanity. But surely there is something you want from me," Loki replied in a low, gravelly voice.

            "Now that you mention it, yes. I need you to tell me about the scepter," Fera unfolded her arms, and, clasping her hands behind her back, began to walk the length of the cage. Loki did not move, but followed her intently with a cool, calculating gaze.

            "You mean why you can't get near it," he chuckled lowly. Fera stopped and peered at him.

            "No,"

            "Really," Loki stood, crossing his arms over his chest. "That would be the obvious first question that a cowering human like you should ask,"  
   
 

"Actually, I have the radiation under control, and I assume that it usually responds to your hand only. Correct?" Fera asked, resuming her pacing.

            "And how are you keeping the radiation contained?" Loki ignored her question. "Surely not magic, for this realm has none,"

            "I'd tell you, but it's really none of your business," she replied coolly.  

            "Oh," realization dawned on Loki's features. "You are the one the guards spoke of. What was it they called you...ah, 'Omega','"

            "They spoke of me?" Fera asked, her eyes narrowed. "To you?"

            "No, you fool. They conversed as they placed me in this cage and struck me with their electric gauntlets," Loki replied in a bored voice. He gestured to his neck, which had two large, black holes that oozed with red as if made from some sort of enhanced taser weapon. Fera's eyes travelled up his neck and along his face; he did not look the part of a nearly triumphant god who was about to take over the entire planet and subjugate the Earth to his will. He was pale, with a sheen of sweat covering his ashen skin, dark bags under his eyes and heavy, ragged breathing.

            "Isn't that supposed to heal?" Fera asked, nodding toward the taser mark. Loki shot her an angry glare but did not reply, and after a few moments Fera began making her way up the ramp that led to his glass prison. She stood just outside the door with her arms crossed. "And you're not locked in there. You can open it any time you'd like, but you're choosing not to. Why is that?"

            Loki froze, his back turned to her, and looked at her slowly. "How did you--?" he began.

            "How did I know? Come on, Loki, I'm not stupid. If you have enough magic to pull all this shit you've been doing, you can certainly get out of here if you wanted. But that's not the point. The point is, if you have a world to win, why are you sitting in here like a schoolboy wearing a dunce cap?"

            Loki smirked at her. "All in due time," he replied. A few moments of silence passed between them. Fera inhaled deeply.

            "I stole a pair of Dior sunglasses once," she muttered. "From a mall,"

            "What?" Loki said, taken aback. He narrowed his eyes, replacing the sneer on his lips. "I don't care,"

            "It was before I came to the School. Before the Professor found me," Fera said, studying the nails on her left hand. "I didn't even like the glasses. It was the ugliest pair I've ever seen, but it was $600. So I took them,"

            "Why are you telling me this?" Loki droned, his hands at his sides.

            "There were people hunting me. I needed somewhere safe to go. Prison was my best option. I didn't want to leave when they let me out the next day,"

            "I care not. But I bore easily. Who was it that hunted you?" Fera bit her lip, deciding what she should say.

            "People who needed an Omega, someone like me, to do their dirty work. Unspeakable things. I was to be their circus bear, having to do what they could and would not,"

            "And you feel the need to confess this to me why, exactly?"

            "Someone is controlling the scepter from the other end,"

            "Yes, human, that would be me,"

            "That's not what I mean. And they're influencing more than just the scepter, aren't they?"

            "Enough," Loki growled, his mouth curling into a thin sneer. "You know nothing,"

            "Obviously," Fera replied, the briskness returning to her voice. "If I knew where the Tesseract was, would I be down here? This isn't exactly tea time for me either, pal,"

            Loki said nothing, but seated himself on his bench, avoiding her gaze. Fera watched him for a moment, and noticed his taser burn more swollen than before, the small gathering of blood growing and threatening to spill over. She placed her hand on the keypad next to the door, sending waves of electricity into the small metal box. It swung open easily, and she carefully stepped through it and into the cage. Loki glared at her angrily, his nostrils flared and his hands balled into fists at his sides; they stood like that for a moment, her dark eyes boring into his eerily bright blue ones. Fera took a few steps forward in the tiny cage, until they were just inches apart.

            "Get out," he growled, his unnaturally cold breath on her face. She raised a hand and swiftly placed it on his forearm. "What are you doing?"

            "I am restraining you only because I know you'll snap my neck if you don't. I've made almost every bone in your body rigid and unmovable, so don't even try," Loki did not reply, but only glared at her. Fera raised her other hand to his neck where the taser burn was, and his eye twitched involuntarily. "What did they do to you, I wonder?" Fera mused, not referring to the guards. She placed a hand to his neck, and he yelped in pain as the burn began to heal, the open wound throwing dozens of clots per second and the dead cells being broken away from the skin and replaced with ones that had regenerated at an unprecedented rate. As the wound healed over, leaving a small pink spot in its absence, she began to back away slowly away from him, not releasing his bind until she was on the other side of the cage. Loki relaxed and began to breathe heavily as if he had been through some difficult ordeal, placing his hand to his neck. He looked at her.

            "Why?" For a moment, just a half of a piece of a second, Fera saw his disdainful sneer fall. His eyes widened and his brows quirked up, one just a bit above the other. As quickly as it had fallen away, however, Loki replaced it with another sneer more menacing than the last. "You know nothing," he said again, turning away.

            "I can tell you're afraid of something," Fera said. "And very sad. I felt it when I touched you--you are just burning to control those emotions, weed them out, like they're a disease,"

            "I will tell you nothing of the scepter or the Tesseract," was the only thing he said.

            "Please," Fera scoffed. "I didn't come down here for that. Even though it's fighting me every second, I have the scepter under control. I was going to stay as far away from you as possible, but then Thor came in with his sad puppy dog eyes and started talking about what an upstanding guy you are, and that maybe all this," she gestured to his angry form. "Wasn't all you. I wanted to know if his theory held any water or if it was just a brother's love talking," She turned and exited the cage, closing the door slowly behind her. When she turned to face him again, she caught him faltered, a frown tugging at the corner of his mouth and his eyes blinking confusedly at the ground. He glanced at her and smirked.

            "Even so, you still don't have the Tesseract,"

            "Tony and Bruce are tracking it now. This realm may not have magic, but it does have science,"

            "My brother is a fool," Loki scoffed. "As are you, for believing his delusions. You speak in sympathies and of your supposed understanding of my own motivations. Trying to find humanity in a monster like myself. But you shall find none. I will kill you in an instant, snap your neck in two as you kneel and cower in terror before me," he smiled poisonously.

            "Well then," Fera said, folding her arms over her chest. "Why don't you?"

            All of a sudden, an explosion was heard from outside the Helicarrier far in the distance, and Loki grinned at her evilly. "I've more pressing matters at hand. You may want to return to your people. If they've survived, that is,"

            Fera turned and bolted out of the room; as the doors slid shut behind her she turned to glance at Loki, who stood in the exact same position as before, with an unmitigated grin on his face.

            Fera climbed the stairwells and bolted down the long, crowded hallways faster than she could have imagined she was capable of, until she at last rounded the corner to the room where she had left Bruce and Tony. She exhaled a tiny sigh of relief as she saw Captain Rogers and Tony stumbling out of the room, the former carefully holding Tony upright as if to protect the fragile human.

            "What happened?" she demanded, walking with them as they sped through panicked SHIELD agents littering the hall.

            "Explosion," Tony quipped. "Incoming from Fury, engines are down and we're falling fast. I'm going to suit up, I'll meet you at Engine 3," Before either of them could say anything, Tony was sprinting down the hallway, leaving Captain Rogers and Fera staring after him in bewilderment for a few moments. Captain Rogers turned to her.

            "Scrapper, right?"

            Fera held out a hand. "Fera,"

            Captain Rogers took it. "Steve," he said. "Right then, we should get moving,"

            Fera hurried behind him as he barreled his way through the twisting hallways, holding her wrist to her mouth and speaking into a small device attached to her sleeve.

            "This is Scrapper headed East to Engine 3, is everyone alright?" The line was silent for a moment, and Fera's heart raced. Suddenly, a voice cursed on the other end of the line.

            "Fucking alien bastard," Wolverine's voice muttered. "Thor and I are fine, Squirt, going after Banner,"

            "I think we're okay," Kitty whispered.

            "Why are you whispering?" Scrapper asked.

            "I'm with Natasha, and we're hiding--no, running from the Hulk. Stay close to me, Nat, we're going through that wall!" Scrapper briefly wondered how the ninja-like woman would like running through solid concrete.

            "This is Storm, I am with Director Fury defending the bridge. No serious injuries yet," Storm's voice came through her earpiece.

            "Roger that, keep me posted,"  Fera said hurriedly as Steve pulled open a heavy, slightly bent metal door.  He bolted through it, Fera on his heels, both of them stopping short as they saw the damage the engine explosion had caused.

            "Oh my God," Fera gasped, her mouth hanging open. Before them, where there should have been hallways and rooms and engine controls and walkways to provide easy access between the engine levels, there was nothing but a gaping hole in the ship, the metal bent and broken, the walkways hanging haphazardly in the air, pieces of the engine dangling thousands of feet above the ground.

            "Where's Stark?" Steve yelled over the wind.

            "I don't know, Captain, but I think we've got company!" Fera pointed to the other side of the landing across from the gaping hole, and Steve turned as a handful of men escaped into the Helicarrier.

            "Stark, you here yet?" Steve said urgently, putting a hand to his ear. A flash of red and yellow rounded the corner.

            "Yes I'm--hoo boy," Stark's voice sounded in her ear. "Oh, Fera, don't panic, you're not hearing voices, I had Jarvis connect your earpieces to ours when you went to interrogate Loki,"

            "What's the plan, Stark?" Steve asked.      

            "Well, fixing the engine, for one," he replied drily.

            "Yes, but how!?"

            "I need you to get to the engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position," Stark rattled as the Iron Man suit hovered attentively in front of the engine.

            "Overload position?" Steve repeated, turning to Fera. "What's that?"

            "I have no idea," Fera shrugged. Steve nodded once, running across the landing and jumping across the opening in the blasted walkway; with bated breath Fera watched as he caught onto an broken metal bar and swung himself onto the landing of the neighboring engine control room.    

            "Scrapper," Wolverine's voice sounded in her ear. "Banner's gone,"

            "What? What do you mean gone?" Fera demanded, keeping an eye on Steve as he hopelessly stared at the engine control panel, and on Tony as he used a laser to cut away a large piece of destroyed engine.

            "He had a fight with a jet and he won, but it catapulted him miles away," Wolverine explained quickly. "I'm going with Thor to stop Loki before he--oh shit, he's out,"

            "LOOK OUT, WOLF MAN!" Thor's booming voice sounded in the background, and the line went dead.

            "The bridge is under attack, second engine failure coming," Storm clipped.

            "I think we've almost got this one fixed--" Fera began. She was quickly cut off by Steve.

            "Scrapper! Behind you!" Steve shouted. Fera whipped around to see one of Loki's henchmen climbing through the doorway, his eyes and gun fixed on her. Before he could pull the trigger, Fera kicked the rifle out of his hand and jabbed him angrily in the eye before he could return the gesture. He stumbled on the landing; Fera watched as his foot caught on a piece of metal poking out of the ground and he fell out of the Helicarrier to his doom several thousands of feet below. Fera turned to face another man that had bolted through the doorway onto the doorway, but it was too late; he threw a small black object into the air, and Fera knew where it was headed as it reached the peak of its arc.

            "Captain! Grenade!" To Fera's amazement, Steve jumped across the gap in the  walkway and swatted the grenade away with his hand like a cat would with a ball of yarn. The grenade plummeted several seconds until it exploded several feet below the Helicarrier, just as a half a dozen more of Loki's men came onto the landing Fera was on. Steve landed lightly next to her, picked up a machine gun that one of the men had left behind, and began to shoot at the men.

            "You need to get back up there and wait for Stark's word! I'll handle these goons," Fera shouted.

            "No, there are too many of them! You'll get yourself killed!"

            "Captain," Fera said patiently. She forgot sometimes that not everyone knew what she was capable of. Her eyes flickered to a small fire that had started inside the Helicarrier, and raising her hands in front of her, the flames travelled as a single entity out onto the landing, stopping just behind the unsuspecting men. She flicked one of her hands and the flames quickly grew into a firestorm, enveloping the men in an instant and stepping aside as they ran in a panicked frenzy off the Helicarrier, falling through the sky below like tiny meteors. Fera turned back to Steve. "I got this. Go,"

            "Right. Mutant," he said numbly, turning and climbing back up to the engine control room. Fera watched Stark as he flew into the engine and began to push the blades manually, and let out a bated breath as the engine began to pick up by itself again.

            "Ready, Captain?" Fera shouted to Steve. However, just as she looked up to the landing, bullets began to rain on him, no doubt shot by more of Loki's henchmen trying to sabotage the engine. He took one step too far backward, and fell out of the Helicarrier, barely saving himself from plummeting to his death by grabbing onto a stray wire.  "Crap," she muttered to herself. Mimicking Steve's movements from before, she leapt across the landing and latched onto the metal pole, carefully climbing into the engine control room as the men came closer. She looked around desperately. There was no fire that she could see, and the men were advancing so they were only a few yards away from her; in a moment of desperation, Fera placed her hand on the control panel, praying that there was some energy in there she could use. After a moment or two, she located a source of energy through the wires that connected the panel to the engines to the generator, and pulled as much as she could out of it, throwing up an energy barrier that caught and repelled the bullets flying at her and Steve.

            "Alright, hit the lever," Stark's voice sounded in her ear.

            "We need a minute, here!" Steve shouted as Fera began to pull the wire in. Reaching for him and praying she didn't fall herself, she grabbed his forearm and pulled him back onto the landing, falling to the ground as he gained footing on the landing. Steve leapt toward the lever and slammed it down, hitting the deck hard as Stark came careening through the landing, ramming into Loki's men still shooting at them. Fera let the barrier fall with a groan.

            "Scrapper, you okay?" Steve asked as he stood quickly, extending a hand.

            "Yeah," she said, taking it and allowing herself to be pulled to her feet.

            "Stark?" Steve called into the doorway. When he went unanswered, they bolted through into the hallway, to see Stark laying in his Iron Man suit on the ground, his mask unlit.

            "Yep, I'm good," Stark grunted in a muffled voice, unmoving.

            Fera stood carefully as Storm's voice sounded in her earpiece. "The Bridge is secure. What is everyone's status?"

            "Engine 3 is repaired," Fera said wearily.

            "Carrying Barton to his room, so Natasha can...er, recalibrate him,"

            "Logan?" Storm asked, concern in her voice.

            "Loki escaped," his gruff voice replied in between ragged breaths.

            "Damn it," Fera hissed. Tony and Steve turned to her.

            "What happened? Steve asked as Tony pried off his mask.

            "Loki's gone,"

            "How? What about Thor?"

            "Logan? Fera said, holding her sleeve to her mouth. "Where's Thor?"

            "Loki tricked him into the cage and dropped it. He could be dead for all I know, but apparently they're immortal so I've no idea where the hell he is. No one told me that bastard could clone himself. I couldn't get to him in time,"

            "It's not your fault, Wolverine," Storm said consolingly. "Are you hurt?"

            "I'm fine. But Scrapper, you need to get down here. Now,"

            "Why? What happened?" Fera said, immediately springing down the hallway, ignoring Tony and Steve's looks of concern.

            "It's Coulson. Loki shishkebabbed him before splitting,"

            "Shit. Wonderful," Fera muttered, breaking into a full run down to the chamber. Just as she made it to the thick doors, they slid open on their own and Fury stomped out, his hand to his ear and his voice low.

            "Hill, Agent Coulson is down," he said as he marched past her and down the hallway. Fera burst into the chamber, which now appeared much bigger and much emptier than it had before due to the cage being dropped, and immediately spotted Logan crouched next to Coulson, who sat slumped against the wall, his eyes closed and his shirt covered in his own blood.

            "Is he..." Fera asked breathlessly as she trotted to his side. Logan shook his head.

            "Still alive, but just barely. You'd better work fast," Fera nodded once and kneeled beside Coulson.

            "Help me get him flat, and I need to see his wounds," she ordered. Logan put him on the ground, adjusting his arms by his sides and ripping his shirt so she could see the large, gaping hole in the middle of his torso. Logan stood, and leaned against the railing behind them to stay out of Fera's way.           

            Fera took a deep, steadying breath, then placed her hands so they were just hovering over Coulson's wound. She closed her eyes softly, listening for a heartbeat.

            "God, his heart is barely beating," she murmured, more to herself than Logan. Reaching a hand over Coulson's heart, she began to flex and clench her hand in rhythmically; instantly, the heartbeat got stronger. "Ah, much better. Okay..."

            Briefly placing her hand on the wound, Fera closed her eyes, focusing on controlling and diminishing the massive abdominal hemorrhage taking place inside him. As she felt the bleeding clot, she released her hand from his skin and hovered it just centimeters over him, moving it in a counterclockwise motion and preparing to rebuild the tissues that Loki had destroyed.

            After a few minutes, Coulson's heart started to beat on its own again, and Fera stopped flexing and clenching her hand. "Sorry, I am so sorry," she said as she began to repair the hypodermis. Coulson screamed, writhing in pain. "Logan!"

            Logan bent down and held him still as Fera worked her way through the rest of the hypodermis, the dermis, and eventually the remaining epidermis. "Sorry," she repeated as sweat gathered on his brow. As Fera finished and the stab wound was healed save for a minor bruise, Coulson gasped, his eyes snapping open and flitting back and forth between Logan and Fera. A few moments passed, the only sound his rapid breathing.

"I didn't know he could clone," he blinked breathlessly. Logan scoffed, and stood up.

            "Me either, Bub," he said, offering Coulson a hand and pulling him to his feet. Coulson stretched experimentally. "How do you feel?"

            "Like someone stabbed me in the chest with a spear," Coulson replied mildly. He clapped Fera on the shoulder.

            "That was incredible. And really weird. Thank you,"

            "Don't mention it,"  she said, exhaling slowly.

            "I'm guessing the little bugger got away?" Coulson frowned.

            "Yeah. The clone problem. He may or may not have killed Thor as well," Logan answered.

            "Oh, spectacular," he said, eyeing the empty space where the glass cage once was. "Alright, let's go find the others. Fury's lost without me," he said, walking briskly out of the chamber.

            Logan and Fera exchanged raised eyebrows. "Nice work, Squirt," Logan chuckled, clapping her on the shoulder. He strode after Coulson, Fera following close behind as they climbed the many stairwells and traversed the many hallways to go find Fury.

            After a few minutes, they eventually found themselves in the hallway that lead to the War Room, and as they approached they heard Fury's distraught voice wafting out of the room as he spoke to whoever was left. "Phil Coulson died today," They heard him say. "He died still believing in the idea that the Avengers Initiative was found on...heroes. I've lost my one good eye,"        

            Without any semblance of hesitation, Coulson strode in the room confidently, Logan and Fera following quietly behind. "Jeez," Coulson remarked as four pairs of widened, disbelieving  eyes and open mouths took in his unharmed form. "Where is everyone? I'm dead for two minutes and half of you are gone. Sorry I'm late, Boss," Storm caught Fera's eye and smirked knowingly.

            "Coulson," Fury stammered, shocked. "How are you--why are--what the--?"

            "We thought you croaked, buddy," Tony said, standing to clap Coulson on the shoulder.

            "So did I," Coulson replied. "I was sure I was a goner, but Scrapper here took care of that," the others glanced at Fera in surprise, but Coulson was oblivious, his eyes landing on a pack of vintage Captain America trading cards covered in blood laying on the table. "Oh my God, are those my cards?" he said, his eyes wide.

            "Hang on, what do you mean Scrapper 'took care of it?'" Fury demanded.

            "I don't know what she did, all I know is I thought I'd closed my eyes for the last time and then I wake up to see her and Wolverine over there kneeling over me and the hole in my chest gone. Not even a scar to show,"

            "My God," Steve breathed.

            "Alright, yes, Coulson's alive, hooray," Logan interrupted. "But we seriously need to figure out what we're going to do about American Psycho,"

            "He's right," Storm said, nodding. "Does anyone know where Kitty is?"

            "Here," said a tired but cheerful voice from inside the wall as Kitty stepped through it and into the room. "Natasha is working on recalibrating Barton. She's almost done, I think,"

            "Great," Fury said, nodding. "Now we need to figure out where he's going,"

            "We?" Tony challenged, anger playing on his brow. "There is no 'we,' Fury. This isn't a team, and you are sure as hell not our leader. You lied to all of us, planning to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. Why should we trust you?"

            Fury turned to stark, his chest inflated indignantly. "I understand why you're upset, Mr. Stark," he said, his voice low and commanding. "But this is not the time--"

            "The hell it's not, Director. We have no reason to trust you. Who's to say you're not going to take the Tesseract and use it for yourself? I'm not marching to your fife any longer," with that, Tony stood angrily and strode out of the room, his chair still spinning lazily long after he was gone.

            "An arsenal," Logan repeated, staring at Fury like he was Lucifer incarnate. "You were going to use this alien technology to create your own weapons, regardless of the danger it would put the rest of the world in? The people who could die in the process? I knew a man like you once, Fury, and things ended up pretty badly for him,"

            "Stryker," Storm spat in agreement.

            "You people," Fury said, his voice rising defensively. "Yes, the plan was to build a multitude of weapons from the Tesseract. It was the will of the Council, though I personally was against it. I put my faith into another idea, a riskier idea, that I called the Avengers Initiative. They would be the ones to fight the battles that we never could; I knew that all that alien power in the hands of regular people would end badly for everyone. I guess I failed on both accounts,"

            "Well now Loki's gone, and with Thor, Banner, and the scepter  missing, there is no way of tracing him," Steve said to Fury, his mouth in a thin line.

            "Thank you for your help, Storm," Fury said after a few moments, looking at the mutant. "But there is no more to do here. If I were you, I would go back to the School and seal it off. Protect yourself against what's coming,"

            "That's it?" Kitty asked, crestfallen. "We're just giving up?"

            "He's right," Storm said evenly, speaking to Kitty but her eyes fixed on Fury. "We've done everything we can. Let's go,"

            Storm strode out of the room without so much as a handshake with Fury, and the others followed quietly; Logan shot Fury a snarl as he exited. Fera followed suit, glancing toward Fury and Steve desperately as she left. Fury only glowered, his eye downcast toward the table, but she slowed as Steve gave her a barely discernible nod. Fera returned the gesture, and hurried to the others who were still making their way down the hallway.

            "Wait," she said as she came up behind them. "There's more we can do,"

            "There isn't," Storm shook her head sadly. "The four of us can't go against Loki and his entire alien army,"

            "You don't have to," Steve came jogging up behind them, barely out of breath.

            "Where is he?" Fera asked.

            "Where is who?" Logan  queried, bewildered.

            "Stark," Fera replied curtly. "He wouldn't just leave,"

            "I don't know. He said he was going to find Barton and Romanoff, and that we're going after Loki--he said he figured out where he was going before we met with Fury. But I don't know where Barton and Romanoff are,"

            "I know where they are!" Kitty chimed brightly. Steve smiled at her, and then his eyes flickered to Storm.

            "Are you up for this?" He asked her. Storm glanced at her team, each of them giving her a small nod.

            "Lead the way, Kitty."


	5. A War

Kitty rapped quickly on the doorway, Storm, Wolverine, Steve, and Fera waiting anxiously behind her, looking out for guards coming down the hallway. "Natasha?" she called softly.

            "Nope," The door swung open quickly to reveal Tony leaning nonchalantly against the doorframe. "What's up, Ghostbuster?"

            "Not funny, Stark," Steve said, pushing past him into the room.

            "Why do you knock if you can just walk right through the door?" Tony asked Kitty as the rest of them followed Steve inside.

            "It's the polite thing to do," Kitty replied innocently. Stark rolled his eyes and closed the door.

            "If I were you I would hang common courtesy and go wherever I damn well pleased,"

            "You already do, Stark," Steve told him drily with a roll of his eyes.

            "Yeah good point," Stark replied. "Everyone," he said, stepping toward the side of a bed near the wall.  A serious-looking man with blonde hair and blue eyes sat on the bed next to Romanoff and regarded them carefully. "This is Clint Barton, formerly Loki's right-hand man, but luckily Natasha beat the living shit out of him, so now he is a helpful and contributing member of our weird team thing,"

            "Really," Logan said, drawing out his claws. Barton stared at them with wide, frightened but calculating eyes.   

            "Yes," Natasha said, curtly and clearly; Logan glared at her, and she held his gaze coolly. After a few moments, he retracted his claws.

            "Well now that's settled," Tony quipped in a bored voice. "Anyone have a plan?"

            "Attack?" Steve replied sarcastically.

            "You know, you're a riot, Steve, but really,"

            "Do we know where Loki's going?" Storm asked. Tony rolled his eyes at Steve impatiently.

            "You didn't tell them? Come on, we've got to be on the same page here. It's the only way our teams can fight together and not get everyone killed,"

            "Sorry, Stark, I was a little busy trying to follow your lead without giving anything away to Fury. You could have been a little clearer with your instructions,"

            "Alright, alright, can it, both of you," Logan interrupted angrily. "Stark, where is Loki?"

            "He's going to my tower," Tony replied. "Taking the nice and public route, trying to defeat us in front of the whole world,"

            "Then we need to get there, ASAP,"

            "But what about Thor and Dr. Banner?" Kitty asked.

            "Banner will meet us there," Tony replied confidently. "Thor will most likely be pounding Loki into a pulp by the time we arrive,"

            "Maybe," Steve said. "Maybe not. We can't know for certain, and we can't depend on them,"

            "He's right," Hawkeye chipped in. "Loki's opening the portal today, very, very soon,"

            "Don't worry. We'll be there to stop him," Storm vowed.

            "Do we even know who--or what--we're going up against?" Logan asked, his still untrusting eyes narrowed at Barton.

            "Thor said he had an army of aliens," Romanoff quipped.

            "That really helps," Tony replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

            "Look, it doesn't matter what or who will be waiting for us. What's important is how we face it," Steve said seriously, looking at each of them.

            "So how should we face it, Captain?" Kitty responded quietly.

            Steve paused, glancing at each of their determined and expectant faces. "As at team," he said.

            "The priority should be the scepter and the Tesseract. If we can get control of either, we'll be able to shut down the portal and Loki's entire operation," Logan said.

            Hawkeye shook his head. "There's no way to get near the scepter. Only Loki can control it. If he doesn't have it in his hand it becomes extremely volatile. The radiation could kill us all in an instant,"

            "Not all of us," Tony replied knowingly, turning to Fera, who leaned against the wall by the door. "Scrapper, if you got hold of the scepter and clear access to the Tesseract, could you close the portal?"

            Fera worried her lip between her teeth and rolled her eyes around thoughtfully. "I think so. I'm not sure how the Tesseract works, and I can't guarantee it will be as easy as controlling the scepter, but if I had time and the scepter I think I could manipulate it into doing what I wanted,"

            "How?" Hawkeye asked, his brows knit together in bewilderment.

            "Oh, right, sorry Bird Brain," Stark said. Hawkeye scowled at him. "These are the X-Men Fury called in,"

            "X-Men?" Hawkeye repeated. "Like mutants?"

            "Yeah, kind of like mutants," Logan narrowed his eyes at him, extending his claws again.

            "Okay, we have a plan--sort of ," Steve said loudly. "We'll split up once we see what we're facing and what needs to be done, and Fera, you're going to try to secure the scepter and get control of the Tesseract,"

            "Sounds about right," Fera replied drily.

            "How are we all going to get there?" Kitty asked.

            "My suit. I need to stop by my tower and get a new one anyways," Tony replied.

            "What about the rest of us?" Steve said. "Can anyone fly a jet?"

            "I can," Hawkeye nodded.

            "How many can it hold?"

            "Not many, the ones that Fury can't override are pretty small,"

            Steve turned to Storm, who smile reassuringly. "Don't worry about us, we have the Blackbird. We'll be right behind you,"

            "Great," Steve said, clapping his hands together. "Shall we?"

            "Hang on," Logan said, holding up a hand. "Loki's going to see a jet coming from a mile away. Scrapper will never get close enough to get into the Tower,"

            "You could drop me at the bottom and I could take the elevator," Fera suggested drily.

            Tony shook his head. "Jarvis will have shut down the elevators by now,"

            "I could make fog, so thick Loki won't be able to see his hand in front of his face,"

            "I'd crash our jet," Hawkeye said, shaking his head.

            "You need to upgrade to infrared air vision, Bub," Logan remarked.

            "Seriously though, how are we going to get Scrapper close enough to the building so Loki doesn't see her coming?" Kitty asked.

            They sat in silence for a few moments, trying to work around this newest obstacle. Suddenly, Stark clapped his hands together loudly, and pointed at Fera.

            "I got it. You, come with me," he said, striding toward the door.

            "Stark, what is it?" Steve asked.

            "Just all of you go get ready, strategize, whatever, we will meet you on the runway. Let's go, chop-chop Scrapper,"

            Fera glanced at Logan, who shrugged noncommittally, and sighed as she followed Stark out the door.

***

            "You're joking," Fera crossed her arms over her chest and raised her brows nearly to her hairline as she eyed the silver metallic suit standing at attention in front of her. Moments before, Tony had presented her with a strange suitcase, rolling his eyes at her uncomprehending expression. He had pressed a button near the handle and dropped the case on the ground, watching proudly as it unfolded into a suit that looked just like his, but smaller and silver.

            "Come on," Tony elbowed her. "You need a ride, I have an extra suit, it's destiny,"

            Fera eyed the machine apprehensively. "I don't have a clue how to work that thing. I'll get lost, or crash into something, or kill someone, and I'll probably destroy it in the process,"

            Tony rolled his eyes at her again. "Fera, seriously, a baby could drive this thing. Though I wouldn't recommend it. Jarvis hates whining,"

            Fera jumped as the suit's mask lit up, and a sarcastic, incorporeal  voice floated out of the suit. "It's a good thing I never get any of that, sir,"

            "That's Jarvis?" Fera asked incredulously, pointing at the suit with her hand, though her arms were still folded defensively over her chest. "I pictured him as one of those cute old butlers that bustles around your house complaining about all your antics,"

            Tony smirked at her. "That's not too far off," he said. "But yes, that is Jarvis: Just A Rather Very Intelligent System,"

            "Hello, Miss Novak," The mask lit up again.

            "Uh, hi,"

            "Come on. Just put it on. This one isn't even weaponized. It's built for espionage--Stealth Armor Mark IV,"

            "Seriously?"

            "Yeah, I have a dozen of them in Malibu," he said, waving his hand nonchalantly. "It'll be fun, come on,"

            "I see..." Fera said, eyeing the suit again. "Alright, fine, what do I do?" she asked. As the question left her mouth, the suit swung open, revealing a hollow inside.

            "Just step in. I'm going to suit up and I'll give you a crash course on how to control it," Tony disappeared into another room, and Fera took a deep breath, hesitantly stepping into the suit, and sliding her hands into the metal gloves.

            She settled in carefully then stood still, waiting for something to happen. "Are you comfortable, Miss Novak?"

            Fera jumped at the voice. "Yeah, I'm good, thanks," she said. The suit swung shut, and she expected darkness--however, after a few moments, the inside lit up, and what looked like a dashboard appeared before her eyes, with different analyses of the suit's status as well as the environment around her.

            "Jeez," she muttered to herself. Tony sure was thorough with his suits.

            Suddenly, Iron Man, the suit slightly dented and heavily scratched in many places, flew in through the doorway and hovered in front of her for a moment, then dropped to a standing position. The mask slid open to reveal Tony's face. "You good?" he asked.

            "Yep," she said.

            "Sweet, so all you need to do to fly is--"

            "Faith, trust, and pixie dust?" Fera grinned in spite of herself. Tony smirked.

            "Good one. Feel around your right hand glove, 'kay?" Fera did so, and was surprised to find that the iron glove moved easily with her fingers. "Feel how the thumb is a bit bigger than necessary?"

            "Yeah,"

            "In that suit, if you reach just a little bit with your thumb, you'll feel a toggle,"

            "Uh-huh," Fera muttered in concentration. She moved her thumb around in the glove, and eventually it hitched on a button that moved up and down, side to side, and in all directions in between.

"When you press it once, the repulsion flight jets in the boots and gloves will turn on and you'll hover a few feet above the ground. Press it twice and you'll start to climb. Press it three times and all the jets will turn off. Got it?"

            Fera hesitated, her thumb hovering over the toggle. "Once to hover, twice to climb, thrice to fall," Inhaling deeply, she pressed the toggle. Immediately she felt herself rising as the repulsion jets levitated her a few feet above the ground until she was looking down at Tony.

            "Sweet. How do I steer?" She asked, eager to learn more now that she hadn't accidentally flown through the window.

            "That's the spirit!" Tony said in an enthusiastic voice that did not match the countenance of his mask. "Just move the toggle around. The farther you push it in any direction, the flatter you'll glide and the faster you'll fly,"

            Fera gently pushed the toggle forward and laughed gleefully as she floated forward.

            "Now whatever you do, keep your feet even, at hip width or narrower,"

            "Got it," Fera said, nodding. "What's all this stuff in front of my face?"

            "Damage control, fuel levels, threat watch, et cetera," Tony explained, his suit turning on and rising to be eye-level with hers. "Oh, if Loki sees you before you want him too, just tell J to initiate invisibility,"

            "Invisibility?" Fera repeated.

            "It's called 'Stealth' for a reason," Tony quipped. "Ready?"

            Fera nodded. "Ready," she said.

            "Open the door, J," Tony said, leading Fera to the other side of the room. An up-and-over door opened slowly, revealing the clouds and loud winds outside the Helicarrier. "Follow me. We gotta meet the others on the runway,"

            Without warning, Stark leapt into the air, quickly disappearing into the clouds. Fera hesitated for a moment, but with a grin on her face, she launched after him, her heart dropping for a moment as she hovered tens of thousands of feet over the ground below. "Hey, great," Tony said, a few feet ahead of her. "You didn't fall to your death. Great job," He sped toward the runway on the top of the Helicarrier, and they landed in between the two idling jets, Fera falling clumsily in comparison to Tony's gentle landing.

            "If I may, Miss Novak, you may want to get closer to the ground next time so you don't fall as far," Jarvis' polite voice sounded in her ear.

            "Right, sorry," she said.

            "Shit, Scrapper, sweet ride," Logan's voice sounded in her ear.

            "Are you alright in there?" Storm asked worriedly.

            "I'm fine, Storm, Stark taught me how to work it," Fera replied.

            "Rock on, girl!" Kitty exclaimed enthusiastically.

            "Alright, Scrapper, everyone good on your end?" Stark asked. She looked down to the dashboard in front of her eyes, and saw his face looking at her expectantly.

            "Tell Stark we're ready," Storm said.

            "Yeah, everyone's ready," Fera said, nodding to Tony.

            "Sweet. Let's get this bastard."

***

            Tony and Fera sped miles in front of the Blackbird and the jet that Hawkeye had hijacked from the Helicarrier, and after a few minutes of flying through the clouds, Fera could see the island of Manhattan far on the horizon. Tony slowed considerably, and Fera followed suit, falling in next to him.

            "Okay, here's the plan," Stark said, all business. "I'll distract Loki and you work on the Tesseract. Figure out what needs to happen to shut down the portal. Got it?"

            Fera nodded once. "Got it,"

            "Alright. Hang back here for a minute," Tony said, speeding ahead. Fera stopped in mid-air, scanning the faraway city as she hovered over Central Park. Stark Tower was in the middle of the city, towering over the rest of the skyscrapers; on the very top of the building, so small that from this distance Fera could hardly see it,  was a small machine that gave off a blue sphere of light.

            "I'm in," Tony's voice said in her ear. "Loki and I headed into the Tower. Get to the Tesseract, I'll distract him for as long as I can,"

            "Don't do anything stupid," Fera warned, zipping toward the Tower. She landed on the top of the building, a little unbalanced but much more gracefully than before, and looked toward the machine to see an unkempt, balding man typing away on a computer that was connected via a series of wires and cables to the Tesseract. Fera stepped out of the suit carefully, striding toward the man. Upon a closer look, she noticed that he had the same eerily blue eyes as Loki did, but this man's was more pronounced. "Sir, I need you to step away from the Tesseract," Fera commanded.

            "Never!" The man pulled out a gun and pointed it at her shakily, and immediately pulled the trigger. Taken by surprise, Fera threw her hands up, taking energy from the Tesseract to create a barrier like she had with Loki's men at the Helicarrier. The barrier was larger than she intended and bright blue, with waves undulating off of it; as the bullet struck the force field, it not only stopped the bullet but shattered it into a thousand pieces.

            "Shit," Fera muttered under her breath. She could already tell that controlling the Tesseract was not going to be as easy as the scepter--just from using it to create a force field, she felt its resistance, like arm-wrestling with a body builder.

            As the man reloaded his gun, Fera kicked it out of his hand, and remembering how Natasha "recalibrated" Hawkeye, she slammed his head into the railing on the side of the Tower.

            "Sorry," she said as he fell to the ground. She turned to the Tesseract, regarding it warily. She lifted a hand, and just as she was about to place it on the blue cube, she heard a tremendous shattering of glass below her. Leaning over the rails of the balcony, she saw Stark falling out the window, a dozen stories per second. Fera's heart leapt to her throat; just as she was about to turn back to her suit to try to get to Stark before he hit the ground, a red and gold blur shot out of the same window and rocketed down to him. It enveloped him in a matter of seconds in midair, and Stark zoomed back up to the room fearlessly.

            "There's one other person you pissed off,"  Fera heard him say, she guessed to Loki. "His name was Phil. Scrapper, get down here, just blasted Loki and he is down, the scepter is free,"

            "On it, get out of there before the radiation kills you," Fera replied, sprinting back to her suit. Without hesitation she leapt over the balcony, flying into the room below her as Stark soared toward the Tesseract, out of the way of the radiation. Loki was lying in the room, face down, the scepter just a few feet away from his outstretched hand. The suit giving her extra speed, Fera sprinted to the scepter before he could reach it, holding it triumphantly away from Loki. As she turned to leave, Loki jumped to his feet.

            "I cannot let you take that," he snarled viciously.

            "Too bad!" Fera jumped out the window before he could react, and flew to meet Stark by the Tesseract. "Got it," she said. Stark didn't respond; he merely looked up. Fera followed his gaze to see a dark abyss opening in the middle of the clear blue sky, dozens of flying creatures coming through it like a horde of ants.

            "Right. Army," Stark muttered, turning to Fera. "See if you can close the portal. I'll take care of these yahoos," he rocketed upward, climbing to meet the creatures as they poured out of the black hole in the middle of the sky. Moments later, Fera heard explosions above, and looked up as a dozen small explosions sent the aliens crashing and burning toward the ground. Returning her attention to the Tesseract, she placed a hand in the blue sphere, attempting to weave her way to the heart of its intricate layers, willing it to shut the portal down. Her attempt went unnoticed by the Tesseract, however, and Fera realized that controlling it would be much more difficult than any other large amount of radiation she had ever Mastered had been, because this blue cube was...well, alien.

            "Stark, whoever is controlling the Tesseract is majorly resisting with some alien energy. I've never seen this before, and I don't know how to Master it,"

            "Selvig knows," Stark replied curtly, his attention obviously elsewhere--most likely on the new horde of aliens swarming through the portal.

            "He's undergoing cognitive recalibration,"

            "Try using the scepter! It's connected to the Tesseract via gamma radiation. If you can control it maybe you can control the Tesseract as well,"

            Fera picked up the scepter where she left it leaning on the railing and held it toward the Tesseract, ready to lower it steadily into the blue sphere. However, just as the tip of the spear was about to penetrate the field, Loki stepped out behind her, fully armored and wearing a strange golden helmet with long, slightly curled horns. He spun her around roughly and latched onto the scepter with both hands.

            "I'll be needing this," he growled, his cold breath once again on her face. Fera did not let go, but held fast to the scepter.

            "Over my dead body," she snarled. A wicked grin formed on Loki's lips.

            "That can be arranged," Fera suddenly felt a flash of pain in her abdomen, undulating through every nerve in her body. She let go of the scepter in surprise, falling to the ground with her hands over the stab wound. Loki towered over her triumphantly, and lowered the scepter to her heart. "You've wasted far too much of my time," he said, his lips curling into a sneer. He held  the scepter high in the air, and a beam of blue light shot at Fera; however, despite the throbbing pain in her abdomen that all but paralyzed her extremities, she caught the beam between her hands and dispelled it. Loki's eyes widened in confusion, then realization dawned on his features. "Oh, I see...mutant," Scrapper scrambled to get to her feet, but the magic that coated the dagger pulsing through her veins rendered her incapable of movement. Feeling helpless, she glared at Loki angrily as he came closer.  "It's a shame to be so barbaric, but desperate times, love," Loki said poisonously. He held the scepter over her chest, his hands wrapped around the spear tightly and his arms poised to strike; but before he could send the scepter into her heart, a flash of red thundered down behind him, landing on the deck opposite theirs with a crash. Loki whipped his head around and snarled as Thor glowered at him.

            "Loki!" Thor boomed. "Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it!" Loki turned, seemingly forgetting about Fera, and her eyes flickered between him and Thor.

            "There is no stopping it," Loki replied madly. "There is only the war," Thor's mouth set in a firm line.

            "So be it," he said softly. With a strangely high-pitched roar, Loki leapt from the balcony toward Thor, his scepter poised to kill, and Thor parried with his hammer. Fera wrapped her hands around the strangely carved dagger and pulled it slowly out of her abdomen, placing one hand over the wound and healing it. She tried not to scream as she did so, not wanting to draw Loki's attention to her or, even worse, distract Thor so that Loki would gain the upper hand. Black spots popped in front of her eyes, but she willed herself to remain conscious.

            At last, as the new skin was replaced over the wound, she heard Romanoff's voice in her earpiece. "Stark," she said. "We're on your three, headed Northeast,"

            "What, did you stop for drive-thru?" Stark replied. "Swing up Park, I'll lay them out for you.

            "You alive there, Squirt?" Logan's voice sounded in her ear.

            "We're right behind the others," Storm added.

            "I'm fine...now...but Loki has the scepter again," Fera replied.

            "Seriously?" Stark said. "I handed him to you on a golden platter!"

            "Well I'm sorry, I've never fought against magic daggers before!"

            Just then, Hawkeye's hijacked SHIELD jet came rounding around the corner, speeding over the city and straight for Stark Tower, taking out the aliens that now flew rampant around the buildings and raining bullets on Loki as it came nearer. Loki threw Thor to the ground with an unexpected burst of strength, and aimed a full, powerful, exploding blast toward the jet. Fera leapt to her feet, holding her hand out to the scepter; however, it was too late. She managed to barely diminish the effects of the alien explosion, but the scepter's blast hit the right wing, nearly tearing it off, and the jet began to fall from the sky.

            Just as the jet was about to hit the ground below, possibly killing hundreds of bystanders that were frozen in fear, the Blackbird swooped in from above and shone an anti-gravity beam on the jet; it froze in mid-air, and was carried to a safe landing zone by the larger, silent jet.           

            "That's new," Logan's voice sounded in Fera's ear. She could almost see him rolling his eyes at the display.

            Loki spun and faced her angrily; unperturbed, Fera leapt to the lower balcony, kicking him square in the jaw as she landed in front of him; as his head snapped back and he tried to get away, she leapt onto his back, clamping onto his long, curling golden horns. Loki's hand clamped onto her wrist and flipped her on her back in front of him.

            "You will fall before me!" he said as he came towards her, his face livid. Suddenly, Thor careened into Loki, tackling him to the ground; the scepter flew out of Loki's hand and landed onto a balcony a few stories below them. Without hesitating, Fera bolted to get it; not caring whether she broke several bones in the process, she jumped off the balcony, and plummeted three stories and landed in a roll on the balcony that held the scepter.

            "Christ," she muttered to herself as she wrenched herself upward, cracking her oddly-bent neck. "Definitely won't be doing that again,"

            "Stark, you seeing this?" Steve's voice rang in her ear. Fera looked up, and froze as a goliath creature that looked like a whale covered in armor floated through the portal and into their skies; lowering itself into the city, it crashed into buildings like they were made of clay.

            "Seeing, still working on believing," Stark replied. "Is Banner here yet?"

            "Banner?" Steve repeated.

            "Just keep me posted," and the line went dead. Fera reached down and grabbed the scepter, feeling the familiar pulse of the alien radiation being absorbed by her. She glanced up at the balcony she had jumped from, to see Thor holding Loki by the neck, his face inches from his, screaming at him.

            "Loki, look at this!" Thor pleaded. "Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?"

            Loki hesitated, struggling in Thor's grip, clawing at his hand like a child. "It's too late!" Loki said in a gravelly voice. "It's too late to stop it,"  Perhaps it was the explosions that sounded all around her, or the roar of the iron whale in the distance, or the buildings that were crumbling in every direction, or the fact that she was three stories below them, but as Loki said those words Fera could have sworn she had heard a hint of remorse in his voice.

            Evidently, Thor heard the same. "No," he said gently. "We can stop it. Together," Loki stopped struggling for a moment, and Fera thought Thor had gotten through to him; however, Loki's countenance of horror and regret was short lived.

            "Sentiment," he sneered, stabbing Thor in the side with a blade that looked the same as the one he had used on Fera. As Thor fell to the ground, Loki turned his back on him and strode to the edge of the balcony, snarling as he saw Fera below. "Don't you ever die?" he spat.

            "You'll have to try harder than that, asswipe," she replied angrily. Loki growled, his hands on the railing, ready to jump down and wrestle her for the scepter; however, just then, Thor came up behind him, picked Loki up and slammed him onto the ground with an angry roar. Loki got up halfway, his helmet askew, but instead of returning to finish Thor, he jumped off the balcony and into the air, catching hold of one of his flying minions and speeding away.

            "Thor!" Fera cried to the higher balcony. Thor was now on the ground, his hand over the dagger Loki had embedded in his side.

            "Are you alright, little one?" Thor called, his voice ragged.

            "Are you?" Fera replied. No answer. "I'm coming up, hang on," Fera looked around desperately for something--anything--she could use to get to the balcony three stories above her without climbing or breaking a window and running up the stairs. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a large potted plant sitting innocently and peacefully near the railings. Praying it wasn't fake, Fera hurried toward it and placed her hand on the soil; breathing a sigh of relief that Stark wasn't one to have fake plants in his home, she drew energy from the scepter in her other hand, transferring it to the plant under her other hand.  Its tendrils grew longer and thicker as she wove them into a crude ladder that stretched to the balcony. Climbing up the plant ladder with a bit of difficulty due to the cumbersome spear, Fera sped to the higher landing and fell to her knees next to Thor.

            "You were right, Scrapper," he said in a low voice. "My brother is not there anymore,"

            "Hold still," she replied, pulling out the dagger slowly. Thor hardly winced, and as she pulled out the poisoned blade he was already halfway healed. "Sorry," she said. Thor growled in pain as she closed the wound, but it did not take her nearly as long as it did with herself or with Coulson. Moments after she placed a hand to his wound, he was standing again.

            "Thank you," he said absentmindedly, holding out a hand as Mjolnir sped to it. "I must finish this with that shell of my brother," He spun his hammer in his hand rapidly and took off, leaving wind in his wake; Fera sprinted up the stairs that led to the balcony with the Tesseract and sprinted to the machine. She lowered the scepter carefully into the Tesseract's blue sphere; she knew she had control of both the scepter and the Tesseract, but the alien technology made it feel like sprinting through mud--it would take time for her to have enough control over it to close the portal.

            "I'm working on the portal now, this is unlike anything I've ever controlled before so it's going to take some time," she said, taking the small device off her sleeve and clipping it on her collar. "Is everyone alright?"

            "Kitty and I are trying to find the NYPD, explain to them what's going on and what they need to do," the Captain replied hurriedly.

            "I'm getting people out of the line of fire. There are a lot of injuries down here!" Storm said, her voice calm but wavering.

            "Thor and I are taking down a squadron on 6th," Stark said confidently. "Kicking ass and taking names, that sort of thing,"

            "And the rest of us merry folk are snuffing the bastards on the bridge--hey what's..." Wolverine trailed off.

            "What?" Fera demanded.

            "Son of a bitch, Banner made it," Wolverine said, satisfaction in his voice.

            "Ha ha!" Stark yelled excitedly. "Told you he would make it! Okay, I'm swinging your way now,"

            "Well," Kitty said, her voice tired. "NYPD is on board,"

            "Meet by the bridge. I'm bringing the party to you,"

            "Except for you, Scrapper, how close are you to closing the portal?" Wolverine asked.

            "I have no idea," she replied desperately. "It's like it has a defense system that can only be breached if you know the language of whoever made it. I'm getting there, but it's difficult,"

            "Keep on trucking, Scrapper. Okay, surprise, everyone!"

            Seven groans met Stark's exclamation. "I don't see how that's a party," Fera heard Romanoff mutter.

            "Dr. Banner," the Captain's line sparked to life. "Now would be a really great time for you to get angry,"

            A few moments later, Fera heard a resounding roar, one that was deeper, louder, and that seemed to hold more purpose than that of the alien armored whales.

            "What the hell was that?" Fera demanded.

            Stark's laughter rang triumphantly in her ear. "Hoo, boy, Bruce just went hard rock on that thing!" Another roar sounded, and Fera couldn't help but grin; the Hulk was here, and the entire city knew it.

            "Alright, everyone get over here--call it, Captain,"

            Without missing a beat, the Captain launched into battle-mode, giving out orders as if he had put much thought into it. "Alright, listen up," he asserted, the line crackling.  "Until Scrapper can close the portal our priority is containment. Barton, I want you up on that roof. Eyes on everything. I want you calling out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter: anything that gets more than 3 blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash. Thor, Storm, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning, so light the bastards up. Wolverine, you, me, Kitty, and Romanoff stay down here and keep the fighting on the ground. And Hulk?" he added, taking a breath. "Smash."

            As several lines went dead, Fera felt a change in the Tesseract. It send shockwaves of energy undulating through her as its final defensive barriers began to break down, as if the mud she was sprinting through was getting shallower and increasingly diluted with water.

            "I've almost got it," she muttered, more to herself than anyone who was listening. Suddenly, the skies became dark, and bolts of lightning--Thor's thick and slow bolts alongside Storm's thin and quick ones--from all across the sky began to strike the aliens that continued to pour out of  the portal. The man Fera had slammed headfirst into the railing before began to stir.

            "Sir?" Fera cried. "Sir, can you hear me?"

            "I can't--I don't--where is--what's going on?"

            "You've been rather barbarically cognitively recalibrated by yours truly out of a deep alien hypnosis," Fera rattled off. "Do you remember, sir?"

            "Selvig..." he panted. "The scepter..."

            "It's okay, Selvig, I have control of the scepter. Can you tell me anything that will help me to shut down the portal?"

            "The crown..." he muttered as he fell back into unconsciousness.

            "That really helped," Fera said to herself sarcastically.

            "Captain," Hawkeye's low and monotonous voice said in her ear. "Bank past 42nd and Madison. They've cornered a lot of civilians in there,"

            "We're on it," Kitty's voice replied.

            "Guys," Fera said, swallowing thickly she began to push through the last of the Tesseract's defenses. "I'm really close, I should have control of the Tesseract in a few minutes,"

            "Feel free to, you know, hurry along a bit," Wolverine muttered as two more iron whales sailed through the portal.

            "Scrapper," Hawkeye's voice addressed her. "Loki's headed your way,"

            "I can't deal with him right now, the Tesseract is tearing me a new one," Fera muttered, shutting her eyes.

            "It's okay, I'm on it," Romanoff chirped.

            "Romanoff, you sure about this?" Wolverine muttered.

            "Yeah, sure, it'll be fun. I could use a lift, though,"

            "I don't even want to know what you're--Christ, Nat, what are you doing!?" Hawkeye exclaimed a few moments later.

            "I could use a little help!"

            "Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it,"       

            "Shit--Loki's right on my tail, Barton,"

            "It's alright, I got him,"  Fera looked up from the Tesseract, and in the distance she saw a pair of familiar golden horns flying just behind an alien chariot that Romanoff had hijacked and was frantically trying to steer toward the Tower. Just to the left of them, Hawkeye stood on a building, his bow drawn taut and aimed straight at Loki; he released the arrow, and Fera was sure Loki had met his end. However, to her shock, he caught the arrow easily, but just moments later it exploded, sending the god flying through the air, past Fera on the balcony, and into Stark's living room. Moments later, Romanoff careened haphazardly toward the balcony Fera was on, flipping backwards off of it and landing beside her.

            "Yeah, that was fun," Romanoff muttered as she stood up. They both turned their heads in surprise as the Hulk barreled onto the balcony and into Stark's living room after Loki.

            "Enough!" he shouted, though his voice sounded distant to Fera. "You are all of you beneath me! I am a god, and I will not be bullied by--" Romanoff flinched as there were a series of crashes coming from the room.

            "PUNY GOD," the Hulk muttered as he jumped out the window and back toward the city below.

            "Well, that takes care of that," Fera remarked drily as Romanoff bent down to check on Selvig. Suddenly, Fera felt the last of the Tesseract's defenses fall away; with a final push, she knew she had control of the powerful blue cube.

            "Got it!" she exclaimed. "I can close it," no answer. "Can anybody copy? I can close the portal,"

            "Do it!" the Captain shouted.

            "No, wait--" Stark began.

            "Stark, those things are still coming,"            

            "I've got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute, and I know exactly where to put it,"

            "A nuke?" Fera repeated.

            "Yeah. Stay there, we need you to close the portal after I make it through,"

            "You know that's a one way trip, Bub," Wolverine said quietly.

            Stark did not respond. Fera and Natasha watched the streak of red and gold as Stark flew by, a nuclear bomb on his back. He barely grazed the top of the tower as he passed them, and in a few seconds rocketed up and through the portal.

            Seconds passed as they all waited with bated breath, but Stark did not return.

            "Come on, Stark," Romanoff muttered, her eyes still skyward. Fera glanced at the Tesseract. It had begun to fight her again.

            "Close it," the Captain told her.

            "He hasn't gotten back yet. If I close it, he's gone," Fera replied, trying to stay in control.

            "We can't wait any longer, or we'll run the risk of letting more of them into the city,"

            "But--"

            "Close it, Scrapper," Storm's distraught but accepting voice said. With one last glance at the portal, Fera shut her eyes, shuddering deeply as she commanded the Tesseract to close the portal. She staggered backward once the portal was closed, eager to be rid of the alien power.

            "He did it," Romanoff smirked. Fera looked up to see a red and gold suit falling from the sky; she grinned, but it quickly faded as she realized that he wasn't flying, but falling. Seconds later, a large green blur jumped towards Stark, catching him in mid air and crashing to the ground.

            "Talk to me, Wolverine," Fera said.

            "Stark's not responding,"

            "Is he--?" she didn't dare to say it out loud.

            "We need to get him--" Logan was cut off by one of the Hulk's loud roars; he had evidently been near Logan, and Fera's earpiece began to shriek. "Fuck, never mind, Banner scared him back to life,"

            "Stark, you alright?" Hawkeye asked.

            "Splendid," he grunted in reply, following with incoherent muttering.

            "He's talking about food," the Captain said, amusement in his voice.

            "Always a good sign," Kitty chimed in cheerfully.

            "Thor wants to know where Loki is," Logan said lowly.

            "Um, hang on," Fera ran down the steps and into Stark's living room, still holding the scepter and with Romanoff on her heels. Loki lay completely still in a crater his body seemed to have made in the floor, his eyes closed. "Yeah, he's here. Banner kind of took care of him a few minutes ago,"

            "We're coming up," the Captain said.


	6. A Getaway

They sat a few minutes in silence, until Kitty came through the wall on the other end of the room, with several members of their team in tow; she pulled Steve by the hand, with Tony's hand clapped wearily on Steve's shoulder and dragging Clint along behind him, who was holding hands with a very uncomfortable-looking Logan. The men dropped their hands immediately after they got through the wall, but Fera noticed Steve squeeze Kitty's hand lightly before he let go.

            "He still alive?" Barton asked, nodding toward Loki. Maintaining containment of the radiation, Fera handed the scepter to Romanoff and crouched beside Loki carefully. She  brushed a few strands of stray hair out of his face and held her hand to his temple.

            "Still alive," she nodded, "But just about every bone in his body is shattered,"

            "Good," Stark muttered. "I hope he is in so much pain right now,"

            Just then, there was a crash on the balcony as Thor landed heavily outside the window, Storm descended lightly via her wind, and the Hulk jumped from a nearby building. Thor thundered in as they all gathered around Loki.

            "Is he alive?" Thor demanded.

            "Yeah, just unconscious," Barton replied.

            "We need to get him out of here," Steve urged.

            "We all need to get out of here, Bub," Logan corrected, "Before the good people of New York show up with their torches and pitchforks,"

            "They wouldn't do that," Steve shook his head.

            "They will welcome their champions with glory and honor!" Thor added.

            "Maybe that's how they do it in Asgard but certainly not here," Kitty said briskly, wiping off the dust and alien blood that covered her suit.

            "Jarvis, turn on the news," Stark said. A large, flat-screened television that miraculously survived the Hulk's renovation blinked on, showing a handful of news stations full of angry reporters. The Avengers watched, horrified, the X-Men, unfazed and slightly bored, as the news reports flooded in.

            "I'm standing in the middle of what's left after an alien invasion hit New York City, hundreds of people are missing and many have been confirmed dead..."

            "The aliens were eventually stopped by a secret team whose whereabouts are unknown. No word yet on who exactly is on this team, but dozens of eyewitnesses have confirmed billionaire Tony Stark's Iron Man as well as a team of mutants, the topic of the human rights debate some months ago--"

            "These freaks think they can just waltz in here, destroy Manhattan, and disappear? These Avengers, they're called, along with those abominations we call mutants, are directly responsible for the destruction of our city. Where are they now?  What do they have to hide?"

            "Thanks, J," Stark muttered, seating himself on some steps that led to the mini bar.

            "They think this is our fault?" Barton asked incredulously. "We just saved millions of lives, and they are blaming us for all this?"

            "Welcome to the club," Logan said darkly.

            "Maybe we could go down and talk to them, explain what happened--" Steve started hopefully.

            "You still don't get it, Sparky. They hate us. And now, they hate you. It doesn't matter what we do or say. They are angry and frightened and the only logical think they can think of is to pour all that hatred toward us,"

            "Trust us--you all need to get out of the city now, or else this is going to turn a whole lot uglier than it is now," Storm said, nodding.

            "Fine," Steve said, evidently distraught. "Where do we go?"

            "You can come to the School. Stay there until we can figure out our next move,"

            "Around all those kids?" Stark interrupted, his face twisted in disgust as if he had just been asked to spend a week in a Honey Bucket in the middle of the desert. 

            "There is a compound hidden underground, available only to the team," Storm said with a raised eyebrow.

            "What about my brother?" Thor boomed, staring at Loki, still unconscious and embedded in the ground.

            "We need to keep him in custody at the School until we know what we're doing next," Steve told him.

            "We gonna wake that bundle of joy up?" Logan asked distastefully.

            "No, it's best to keep him unconscious until we get him away from the civilians. Fera, how long until he wakes up?"

            "Well," Fera began slowly. "Normally after taking a beating like that I would say he's not going to wake up at all, but given that he's a god and at the rate he's going I'd give him another 10 minutes before he's up and at it again,"

            "We must get him out of here," Thor urged. "I do not know what his state of mind will be when he awakens,"

            "Yeah, there are people coming up," Stark said, watching a tablet he held in front of him. "How the hell are we getting out of here?"

            "I'll call the Blackbird," Storm said, striding out to the balcony with a small remote in her hands and thick fog already beginning to envelop the block. Tony walked toward the Hulk, who huffed angrily.

            "You coming out of that anytime soon, Bruce?" he asked. He turned to Fera. "Fera, can you--?"

            "Can I what, exactly?" Fera asked, gesturing to his humongous form.

            "You said you could manipulate emotion, right? Could you shrink his anger or something, make him less supremely pissed off at Loki?"          

            "Line starts here, buddy," Barton muttered from the other side of the broken god.

            "Sure...maybe...Bruce?" Fera said, standing in front of him. "We need to leave, so I'm going to help you get back to your normal size, okay?" She hesitantly placed a hand on a finger twice as large as her arm, wary of any sudden movements on the Hulk's part.

            "Whoa," she muttered. "It's like he's made of pissed-offed-ness,"

            "That's kind of his thing, yeah," Tony replied as the Hulk began to shrink, his green skin becoming less pronounced.

            "Blackbird's coming in," Storm called into the room.

            After a few moments, Bruce stood in front of them, normal sized, wearing nothing but a pair of dirty, ripped-up cargo pants and looking around dazedly. Seeing Loki in the ground, he raised his eyebrows.

            "Did I do that?" he asked mildly.

            "Yeah, you practically renovated my tower using Rock of Ages as your wrecking ball," Tony grinned, throwing him a Stark Industries T-shirt.

            "Oh...sorry," Bruce said quietly as he slipped the shirt on.

            "Don't be sorry, it was actually pretty sweet," Barton chirped.

            "We're all going to the School," Steve told Bruce bitterly. "Because apparently saving Manhattan from aliens makes people call for your head,"

            "Great...and what about..." Bruce nodded toward Loki.

            "He's coming with, though he should be back to his charming self in a few minutes,"

            "Can't wait," Bruce replied sarcastically.

            "Hang on, maybe he doesn't have to," Steve said.

            "We are not killing Loki!" Thor boomed angrily.

            "Wow, Cap, I've never seen this side of you," Tony teased. "It's edgy. I like it,"

            "No, no one is killing Loki. Fera, can you keep him unconscious until we get to the School?"

            "Yeah, I should be able to as long as I keep his blood pressure and oxygen levels low enough. But wait," she said, turning to Thor, "Is there anything I need to know, some Asgardian side effect that can result in either of those?"

            Thor hesitated, clearly warring with himself over something.

            "Tick, tock, Hammer Time, we're on the clock. Storm, the Blackbird here yet?"

            "Nearly," Storm called into the room. "Trying to prevent too many people from seeing it as possible,"

            "Oh yeah, don't want people to find out we're here and panic or anything," Logan responded sarcastically.

            "Thor?" Fera urged.

            "No," he said, not meeting her gaze. She narrowed her eyes; if Loki was the God of Mischief and Lies, she could definitely see how he was "adopted"--Thor couldn't lie worth a damn.

            "Alright," she said anyways, "Well if he internally combusts mid-flight it's on you," Fera took one of Loki's cold hands in hers and closed her eyes, focusing on dropping his oxygen and blood pressure levels.

            "Blackbird's here," Fera's eyes snapped open.

            "Right, let's go then," Logan said, striding out the door without hesitation. Steve and Kitty followed him, as did Tony and Bruce, and Clint and Natasha. Fera stood as Thor crouched beside Loki, lifting him up and over his shoulder quietly and striding toward the jet.

            "He's going to be alright, Thor. He's already almost all the way healed," Fera attempted  to console him. Thor turned to her sadly, heartbreak etched in his face. "We need the Tesseract," was all he said. Fera strode to the machine, taking hold of the now-docile Tesseract and placing it into a case that leaned against the railing. She tossed it to Tony, who was waiting just outside the jet. "The case contains it, don't worry about it," she called. She turned to Selvig, who sat dazedly against the railing. "Are you going to be alright?" He merely blinked.

            "He'll be fine. Fury will be sending for him soon," Stark called. "Come on, let's go before the press hounds bully their way into the building," Fera hurried to the Blackbird and up the boardwalk, Tony just behind her. As she entered the cabin, everyone was already seated and buckled, Storm and Wolverine piloting in the front.

            "Everyone in?" Storm asked.

            "You alright, Squirt?" Logan asked.

            "Yep, good to go," Fera replied, sitting near Thor and Loki. The cabin was silent as the jet propelled up and forward.

            "How is he?" Steve asked Fera after a few minutes. Fera glanced at Thor, who was staring at Loki blankly.

            "Stable," she replied. "He's--hang on,"

            "Something wrong?" Barton asked, alert. Fera hesitated, and worked her way to the other side of Loki, placing her hands carefully on either side of his head.

            "I don't know...something's happening, so I'm tapping into his nervous system," Fera jumped. "Oh, he's...awake. Sort of. He can't move but he can hear us,"

            "Yeah? Well YOU'RE A JERK, LOKI," Barton said loudly as he buckled his seatbelt.

            "Shut up, you're making him mad and speeding up his heart rate," Fera snapped. "He's...trying to talk to me,"

            "Since when are you a telepath?" Logan asked from the copilot's chair.

 

            "I'm not, I don't--Oh, his magic. He's conscious but paralyzed, and apparently sending me magical telepathic messages. Splendid," Fera muttered sarcastically. She didn't like the idea of Loki in her head; she knew what a mutant telepath could do when inside someone's mind, but the use of magic as communication was completely foreign to her.

            "What is he saying?" Thor asked, his brow furrowed.

            "It's really jumbled and incoherent. Something about a man named...Thanos?" Fera replied as she looked up at Thor.

            "I know the name," he replied, narrowing his eyes. "But no more than that,"

            "What else?" Tony asked from beside Bruce.

            "He says his blood pressure is too low and he doesn't have control of...wait, what?" she said, lowering her face closer to his as if she would be able to hear him better.

            "What doesn't he have control of?" Barton snickered.

            "Hilarious, Barton. But seriously, he's like freaking out right now--wait--what is that?" Fera asked, nodding toward a dark blue pattern spreading across his hands. Thor jumped up, backing away as if it was toxic.

            "Fera, get back, his skin could kill you. Loki is a Frost Giant,"   

            "Is this what you didn't tell me at the Tower?" Fera asked coolly. Thor nodded grimly as the blue pattern continued to creep up Loki's neck and jaw.

            "I did not know this would happen," Thor apologized desperately, waving for Fera to stay back."He is a Frost Giant. When he is in this state, a simple touch can freeze one's arm off,"

            "Seriously? A Frost Giant? And what are you, big guy, the Lava Monster?" Stark chimed in from his seat beside Bruce near the wall, his arms crossed.

            Thor's brow furrowed. "I know not of what you speak. I am Aesir,"

            Fera rolled her eyes. "I can't take my hands off him or he'll break through the coma. Hang on--calm down, Loki, it's not like you're about to get your hands frozen off," Fera closed her eyes, and as the blue reached her fingertips, it spread around the area she touched, creating a ivory spot amidst the blue.

            "He still panicking?" Tony asked.

            "Yeah, he's demanding I put him normal again--alright, alright! But you have to tell me how," Fera shut her eyes intently, and the others watched as the blue of Loki's skin receded slowly and unevenly. Fera opened her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that it was gone. "You're welcome," she muttered to Loki's still form.

            "What else is he saying? LOKI! Can you hear me!?" Thor boomed over Loki and glanced at Fera expectantly.

            "He says no need to shout," she replied, her eyes flickering toward him. Thor's jaw clenched.

            "Loki, what does Thanos have to do with this?" Thor whispered. Fera cocked her head to the side, confused.

            "He's not responding. He's trying really hard not to think about it, so I won't see,"

            "Loki, you must tell me," Thor said lowly, gripping Mjolnir tightly.

            "He says," Fera blinked, leaning closer to Loki. "Wait, he can put his hammer where? No, I'm not saying that,"

            "Well, good to know he hasn't lost any of his charming personality," Logan said sarcastically.

            "Yeah, it's here. Why? No, I'm not letting you up, what's wrong?" Fera mumbled.

            "He gonna go snow cone on us again?" Stark asked drily.

            "No, he says..." Fera looked at Thor. "He says the scepter has to be destroyed, or else they'll find and come after the Tesseract,"

            "Who?" Barton chirped.

            "He won't tell me,"

            "How do we know he's not lying or tricking us into something?" Steve asked, his eyes narrowing.

            "My brother is a talented liar," Thor agreed.

            "I don't think he's lying," Fera said slowly.

            "Why?" Logan asked.

            "He said 'please,' for one thing," she said. "And the terror that is suddenly wracking his nervous system seems pretty real,"

            "Fine. Let's get rid of the damn thing," Steve nodded, his jaw set.

            "I don't think I can destroy something like that and keep him under. Thor, can you destroy it?"

            "Yes," he said lowly, raising Mjolnir.

            "Take it to cargo," Storm said. "I don't want the radiation getting out of control and killing someone. Kitty, can you take him?"

            Kitty jumped up and led Thor through a door in the back of the cabin. A few moments passed before Steve stood, his fists clenched at his sides.

            "I'll go too, just to make sure nothing happens," he said, striding out the door after them. Clint and Natasha exchanged knowing looks.

            "Is there something I'm missing here?" Bruce asked.

            "Oh, yeah, Steve and Kitty. They're in the 'can't-help-but-be-near-you-even-though-I-don't-know-it' stage," Tony replied, pulling out his phone nonchalantly.

            "Aww. They're a cute couple," Bruce replied mildly, earning a few chuckles. A loud thud reverberated throughout the cabin, shaking the jet.

            "Well, looks like the scepter's taken care of," Logan remarked.

            Thor came in a few moments later.

            "The deed is done. The scepter is destroyed. How is he?" he said, taking a seat as Steve and Kitty entered behind him.

            "He's fine," Fera assured him. "I think he's going to sleep,"

            "What does that mean?" Barton asked.

            "He's tired, I guess."

            With Loki asleep and the scepter destroyed, they rode the rest of the way in silence.


End file.
